Tag Loki

Thor: The Dark World

thegeekregistry 1 Comment

Hey guys! This is my review of Thor: The Dark World, which is an overall great movie and never gets boring.

Malekith was wonderful, and Christopher Eccleston played it amazingly. The only thing I had seen him in was Doctor Who, and I couldn’t recognize him as Malekith. I was absolutely amazed with Malekith and the Dark Elves overall. The Dark Elves have a creepy manikin-like doll-ness to them, and it makes them unsettling in somehow a pleasant way. I thought they were great, and they could keep incorporating them into stories since there are also Light Elves.

Idris Elba is such a wonderful actor, and Heimdall was executed perfectly. I’m very glad he was the one who was cast in this role, and I’m even happier we saw more of him. Heimdall is an amazing supporting character and is one of those characters that just sort of makes the movie.

Lady Sif is even better in this movie, her armor looks practical, and we definitely get to see more of her being able to completely destroy in battle. We see hints that she loves Thor, but it never takes over her character or reflects negatively upon her. Sif and Thor’s banter was really great too, and I want to see more of that.

Thor is, as usual, a great character. There’s sort of a sadder vibe to him in this movie, considering he’s still getting over not being able to get to Jane, and then later in the movie having to deal with his mother’s death. All sequels get darker, but I feel like Thor’s character had a more noticeable change.

I really enjoy that they had Jane be possessed by the Aether, it gave something more to her character, but I really do feel like her character is written like too much of a love interest. I do like her character and she is Thor’s love interest, but I definitely feel like she comes off more cliche than all of the other Marvel female characters. You can’t have every character be the same, of course, but there is something off with Jane for me. I may just be the only one, but I feel like she could have been different.

Loki in this movie was even more interesting and deep than the last two. He seems less ruthless – even if he is still very demeaning – and when Odin says he will never see his mother again, there is true pain on his face. Loki is not a loving person, he is not affectionate or caring, but he loves Frigga – he loves his mother (and considering his final scene as Odin, most likely he does still cares for Thor). He will always say she isn’t his mother, but she only isn’t his birth mother. She immediately loved Loki, and took him as their son right away – there was no doubt that he was now a part of her family, whether or not he was destined to be king.

Frigga’s first moment in the movie was her being loving. She cared for both of her sons, no matter what they did, and that’s truly what Frigga is. I wish we had gotten to see more of her, considering how fantastic she is. She’s one of the best movie mothers I’ve seen, and I wish they hadn’t killed her off.

Frigga’s death is very beautiful though, and her dying so honorably – protecting her family – made it more meaningful. She wasn’t just stabbed while she just watched- she actually fought back, and we honestly don’t see that a lot. I don’t feel like she died in a cliche way. It’s an obvious trope, that the mother dies to bring emotion and character development to the main character/s, but it was such a strong and powerful scene, not focusing on how Thor, Loki, and Odin were handling it and/or crying, but instead it focused on the fact that she was gone, and going to Valhalla. (Norse mythology/Asgard’s heaven, and in some tellings, it’s mostly where their warriors went which makes Frigga’s death even more meaningful)

The design for the movie is stunning, and the details on everything is amazing. Even the chains Loki had were very detailed, and the main reason why I cried during Frigga’s death scene was because of the absolutely beautiful CGI. It was one of the most beautiful scenes I’ve ever seen, honestly.

I absolutely love this movie, and I cannot wait for the next one.

Thor

The Avengers

thegeekregistry Leave a comment

Hey guys! Sorry for not making any posts for so long! There was a lot I wanted to talk about, and I just kept forgetting. This review is for the Avengers! I hope you all like it.

The beginning is really quite interesting. It establishes that this movie is about space and magic and the Chitauri without being over the top with it. The Tesseract is an odd thing, considering it is the power of the universe in a little cube, but I feel that with Phase One’s establishment of the Tesseract, it makes it not as out of the blue as it could have been. You really don’t have to see the other movies to love the Avengers though, and that’s something I love about it.

Loki’s character development seems really quite intense to me. I do understand that he just let himself fall into the abyss of space and how that could certainly be mentally damaging, but Loki is all tricks in Thor, and he seemed so much more in the mindset of ‘kill kill kill’ in this movie.

Now, after brainwashing the agents in the laboratory and having Clint shoot Nick Fury, Loki trips. This entire beginning of the movie, he’s sweating, and his eyes are sunken in throughout the entire movie- much like Clint’s when he’s been taken over. Loki appears to have a case of heat exhaustion (The symptoms of heat exhaustion are confusion, dizziness, fainting, fatigue, headache, muscle cramps, nausea, pale skin, profuse sweating, and sunken, dark eyes from dehydration). This could mean that maybe Thanos has partial control over Loki- how much he’s changed from Thor could allude to that too -, and/or that he tortured Loki (assuming that you can torture a Frost Giant with heat). This is all speculation, but I think it’s one of the best ideas that’s come out of the Avengers fandom.

The only issue I have with Steve Rogers/Captain America in this movie, is how he was written. He came off as too much of a comic relief character. Steve Rogers is incredibly smart, so I don’t understand how he couldn’t understand what Tony was talking about. I can see him saying ‘slow down’ or something of the sorts, but at times he came off as just an old man, and Steve Rogers honestly is not an old man- all jokes I make aside. This was the movie that made me fall in love with the character, but after Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it made me reconsider how he was written in his second movie appearance.

I love Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk. I think he was much better than Edward Norton, in appearance, how he was written, and how he played it. How Bruce Banner was written was really quite perfect. Him being in Calcutta, a place that’s incredibly loud and crowded and disease-filled, makes much more sense when you really think about it. Bruce is a scientist, he’s incredibly smart and most likely knows how to treat many of these diseases, he’s very caring and patient, – as we see when he runs across town with the little girl just to have Natasha tell him that S.H.I.E.L.D needs him – and he’s very calm. Calcutta would be the best place for him to feel like he’s actually helping, instead of what he most likely thinks; being a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode and destroy everything.

Tony Stark/Iron Man was fantastic. There isn’t much to say about him though. He’s obviously become more giving and compassionate, as we see from him being in a relationship with Pepper Potts and the sacrifice of his own life at the end, and I appreciate that. I also really love Pepper Potts. I think their relationship fit in really well with the movie. I don’t think it overwhelmed either of the characters. Pepper Potts was still Pepper Potts, Tony’s partner, but not just Tony’s partner.

I really don’t have anything to say about Thor. I liked his new design, but I certainly do feel like his character development came in Thor: The Dark World.

I’m really happy with how they wrote Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff in this movie. The original members from the comics in the Avengers were Ant-Man, Wasp, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor, so making her character exist in Iron Man 2 was a good choice, like Hawkeye in Thor. Having the character be a part of that world instead of just being thrown into the Avengers is obviously quite smart. She was built upon so well in the Avengers, she was really her own character, not just there for men’s eyes or to be the only female lead. The only time she was a ‘vulnerable female lead’ was when Hulk was raging in the helicarrier, and even then she really wasn’t made into a stereotypical female like it usually would with different companies and their movies. She had a psychologically understandable fear with the Hulk. It wasn’t an ‘oh please help me male lead’ sort of moment- it was a human moment. Her abilities include manipulation, agility, melee combat, and range combat. You cannot shoot, punch, kick, manipulate, or even in some cases get away from the Hulk. The Hulk is a monster. And Natasha isn’t. She may be a superspy, able to control her emotions, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have them. I really do want her to have her own movie, and I feel like it could be a real game changer for female heroines.

Maria Hill, Phil Coulson, and Nick Fury were all incredible. Nick Fury having a bigger role in the Avengers was the obvious choice, considering he’s the director of S.H.I.E.L.D, and how he was written was fantastic. Having Samuel L. Jackson’s usual exasperated, sailor-mouthed character he usually plays show through was perfect for Nick Fury. While Maria Hill had a more minor role, I still loved her. There’s not much to say about her, just going off the first movie she appeared in. And Phil Coulson was incredible. I think his character was perfect, and I loved him almost immediately. His quiet, yet kind and professional way of speaking is nice, and the fact that he’s a huge closet fanboy is great too.

Steve Rogers and Phil Coulson’s relationship is especially cute to me. Phil’s nervousness around Steve, his childhood (and probably adulthood) hero, and Steve’s professional and/or nonchalant sort of demeanor towards him. With the fact that Coulson also had mint condition collectors cards of Captain America, (not anymore thanks to Nick Fury) it’s obvious that Coulson really does admire Steve. I feel like in the sequel they could really build off of this relationship. I love the fight scenes and Loki’s second fight scene was cool and interesting.

Steve Rogers and Tony Stark’s relationship is really quite interesting to me. In 2006 through 2007 Marvel released a comic series, and to put it very shortly, the U.S. government issues the Superhero Registration Act in which Tony is on board with it, revealing that he is Iron Man, but Steve isn’t. The extreme opposing opinions causes Tony and Steve to fight, making just about every other superhero choose a side, and causing a Civil War. We all know that there is a fifty-fifty chance of them going to the Civil War route in the movies, and I feel like the writers did a great job having conflict between Tony and Steve without getting controversial. Although I will say, that Steve could have come with much better comebacks than he did throughout most of the movie. Steve and Clint are the wittiest and sassiest of the Avengers.

I enjoy Thor and Tony Stark’s relationship. It’s sort of like a sibling relationship, and I’m excited for it if they build on that in the sequel. How they met was really rad too.

Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff’s relationship is really interesting to me, because Natasha is obviously afraid of the Hulk, but she respects Bruce and isn’t afraid of him. I feel that Bruce is overall afraid of hurting people, but that he still is fond towards Natasha. I’d love to see what their relationship might evolve into.

I enjoy Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton’s relationship the most, because they are completely equals. They quite obviously care for each other, and if one of them was hurt or if they were killed, the other would most likely kill eighty people in two days. That’s one of the reasons why I want a Black Widow movie so much. I feel like we could learn a lot about their past relationship without forcing unnecessary romance into the film.

I think the Avengers was the smartest thing for Marvel to do, and they executed it almost perfectly. It has a great blend of comedy, sci-fi, and action. The fight sequences were really quite good, especially the ending one. With Clint and Natasha fighting like this happens all the time, Steve leading the policemen to guide the civilians away, Thor and Hulk bringing down the bigger guys, and with Tony’s sacrifice, I feel like it shows them working all together perfectly and shows their roles in the team amazingly. This was honestly a great movie.

Natasha and Tony saved the day, and I love that. Tony sacrificed himself for an uncountable amount of people, including his loved ones, and Natasha sealed the portal so that it would actually work. And while Tony’s sacrifice is definitely important and shouldn’t be swept aside, neither should Natasha’s intelligence and bravery.

Next week, I’ll be talking about all thirteen of the Doctors from Doctor Who. Have a Marvelous weekend!

a

Thor

thegeekregistry Leave a comment

Hey guys! This week, I’ll be reviewing Thor!

I think Thor is a great movie. Aliens are an important part of the Avengers, seeing as they fight Skrulls, Chitauri, Thanos, and Galactus. Overall, aliens are a big part of the Marvel Universe, but the list is too long to talk about now. This was a great way to not just introduce Thor, but also introduce the extraterrestrial part of the Marvel universe.

In the original comic books, Odin decides Thor needs to be taught humility, and thus places Thor (without any memories of his godhood) into the body and memories of an existing, partially disabled, human medical student, Dr. Donald Blake. On a vacation, he witnesses the arrival of an alien scouting party. He then flees from them, and into a cave. He discovers Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer, which is disguised as a walking stick. He strikes it against a rock, and transforms into the god of thunder. Blake is later revealed, in Thor #158, that he has always been Thor. After defeating the aliens, he shares a double life with his alter ego, treating the ill in a private practice with nurse – and eventual love – Jane Foster, and defending humanity from evil.

Thor was also made so that someone could be as strong/stronger than the Hulk, which I personally think is interesting.

Chris Hemsworth’s portrayal as Thor was fantastic. He looks so much like his comic book counterpart, and he really nails the accent, Hemsworth being from Australia. I enjoyed how they didn’t stray too far off from the comic book’s original telling of Thor, but that they didn’t follow it completely. His design was perfect, too. It had the cape, the helmet with wings, it was just more realistic, and I appreciate that.

I love Darcy and Eric, I think they’re fantastic supporting characters, and I would love Darcy to be a permanent fixture in the Avengers. She’s so funny, but smart, and I think she can be a legitimate character and not just comic relief. Odin is a horrible father. Frigga, even though we do not see her much, is really interesting, and I think her parts in the sequel are incredibly important.

Loki is a really interesting villain. I feel as though, at first, he was a victim, like Bucky/The Winter Soldier, but then he made himself into the villain. That was not completely Odin’s doing, but Odin did have a part in that. He could have told him he was a Frost Giant before it was too late. Don’t get me wrong, I love Loki, but I certainly do not look at him and pity him after the whole ‘I got Frost Giants to kill my fake dad but then I killed them so I could get my mother’s pity and be a hero’ incident. And, as always, love his design. It’s fitted perfectly to Tom Hiddleston, (who’s performance as Loki, in my opinion, was fantastic) all while keeping the essence of the original design.

Lady Sif and the Warriors Three were amazing supporting characters, too. The Warriors Three includes Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg. I think they did a great job with them, and I could see there being a movie on just them. It’s not likely, but I would enjoy it.

Everything was designed so perfectly, and I just love that. Asgard was stunning, the Rainbow Bridge was gorgeous, and Jotunheim was hauntingly beautiful. The fight scenes were fantastic, and fit in well.

I don’t feel like Natalie Portman was the best choice. I do like Natalie Portman, but I just feel like Jane Foster doesn’t come off like she should. I really can’t pinpoint what I don’t like about her performance, and it’s not like I hate her, or anything like that, I just think it might have been better with someone else.

The Donald Blake reference was great, but also I really adore how they didn’t make it that Thor was possessing Donald Blake. It honestly would have made Thor weirder than it was suppose to be. I think that would have really made a plot hole too big and would have forced an unnecessary love triangle (Thor falls in love with Lady Sif because Jane didn’t pass a trial given by Odin so Thor could wed her).

It was awesome to see a glimpse of Clint Barton, or better known as Hawkeye! I think it was a great, but small, intro to a character we see in the Avengers.

Loki’s ‘death’ scene was heartbreaking. I found sympathy for everyone in that scene. Loki letting go, realizing he has dishonored his family too much. Thor, having to watch his brother die, and Odin, realizing he truly did make a mistake.

Next week, another change of pace, but I’ll be giving four short reviews on the four short Beatles movies, from the swinging ‘60s! Have a Marvelous weekend!

 

Thor