Thor: The Dark World

                Let’s face facts; Marvel has pretty much dominated the big silver screen since the first “Blade” film back in 1998. Since then, the only big competitor it’s had from DC was the “Dark Knight Trilogy,” “Watchmen,” “V For Vendetta,” “Superman Returns,” “Kick-Ass 1&2,” and “Man of Steel.” Marvel has taken over as the movie-goers true comic book entertainment for families alike. This time, it’s Thor’s turn to jump back into solo-mode for “Thor: The Dark World.”

                In this film, Jane Foster is on the search for Thor in London, where she comes across a portal that leads her to the Aether, one of the Infinity Stones, like the Tesseract. When she comes in contact with the stone, it fuses into her body which makes her a target for the Dark Elves, a race of beings who were long thought to be dead by Thor’s grandfather. Now in order to defeat the survived Dark Elves, Thor must make a truce with Loki and make sacrifices that will possibly lead to victory and the survival of the nine realms. There’s much more to the plot, but that’s the basics of what you need to know so far going in. Now while watching this film, I had about a few questions on my mind:

1.       Did this prove to be a much more suitable sequel than either “Iron Man 2 & 3”?

2.       Was this better than the first “Thor”?

3.       With all the hype it had on being the biggest project Marvel had since “The Avengers,” does it rank up there with it?

And the answers to that were as follows: HELL yes, definitely, and surprisingly yeah, but let me explain all those.

First off, unlike the “Iron Man” sequels, there is no forced in your face Avengers tie-in moments that are pointless, nor is it some rehash of another film, and the villain built up IS the villain and not just some cop-out they pulled at the last minute. Those were all problems I had with both “Iron Man” sequels, and the more I think about them, the worse they get. I still like them, but you see my point.

                This film also manages to update on what made the first “Thor” good, and also gives the people who don’t think much of it what they wanted. One of the problems that I had with the first film was that I was so engulfed in seeing such different worlds that I wanted more; while the first film gave out a nice concept, and did a fine job building up to the first “Avengers,” it made me want the next “Thor” film first. This new film expands on the 9 realms that connect to Asgard, giving us a wonderful world to expand on more with every passing second. The production design in this film was spectacular, and it really does make it feel like a comic book come to life.

                Now as for this ranking up with “The Avengers,” I really do think this topped it by a long-shot. I know they’re two different films, but since they’re part of the same series, I have to come clean here. The action scenes, the dilemmas brought up, and practically everything else makes this a strong film for comic book fans. This proves that Marvel can not only learn from past mistakes, but also bring forth much more than what was bargained.

                The cast from the first movie who've returned for this film do a great job as always. Natalie Portman as Jane Foster was a very likable character, and it’s nice to see her character have much more involvement with the story at hand here. Anthony Hopkins as Odin really did a number on this part, and much like Portman, he has more involvement other than just being asleep through most of the movie. When shit goes down, he just goes Mentor Zorro on all their asses. The only ones who don’t have that much bigger role to play are some of Thor’s allies; don’t get me wrong, they do have a good amount of screen time and they do have much with the film, but I felt like there wasn’t enough of it. I grew to like them from the first film that I hoped to keep seeing more of them in this film, but that’s just a minor nitpick for me.

                The main attraction here in terms of the casting are pretty much Thor, Loki, and Malekith. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston really made these characters their own, and taking these roles made their careers strongly. Their personality, their speech patterns, pretty much everything makes them these characters. Then we also have Malekith the Dark Elf king played by Christopher Eccleston, who you may remember as the 9^th Doctor. He is by far one of the best villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and thankfully is the ACTUAL villain built up from the trailers, unlike what “Iron Man 3” pulled. Eccleston was everything that made a great villain, from presence to look to the amount of challenge he has against the hero.

                Does the film have problems? Yes, and they can be summed up in two words: Kat Dennings. I’m sorry, but her character is OBNOXIOUS in every sense of the word. Every time she popped back in, I groaned in disgust; granted, she’s not as bad as she was in the first film, and I’ll admit she did get a few laughs out of me in the third act, but that’s only because of her intern, Ian. Most of the stuff on Earth that did feel a bit tacked on just for comedic effect, which is very hit or miss on occasion. Other than that, not much else I can say wrong about this film.

                Overall, “Thor: The Dark World” is one of my favorite films of the year, and I’m now REALLY hyped for the third film. This film is an accomplishment to most comic book films, and by far my favorite installment of “Avengers: Phase Two"...so far, anyway. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it…AND buying the t-shirt if it’s at your movie theater.

Rating: 9/10

Ender's Game

                In 1985, Orson Scott Card released the science fiction novel, “Ender’s Game.” It told the story of the world being united as one, in order to fight off the alien menace known as the Buggers. It’s then a young boy named Andrew “Ender” Wiggin is chosen to enroll in Battle School by Colonel Graff, in hopes of being the next commander of the next war, saving all mankind from destruction. This book had held up messages about dealing with bullies, the abuse of children, consequences of war, and the aftermath of corrupting minds. It’s a very strong-minded story that really does give much depth to what society could be and what might be in this sort of situation.

                When word of a feature film was in works back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, a lot of trouble came into getting this film in progress, mostly in finding the right cast of child actors. It wasn’t until about 2010 that the film was going into full force with casting and production. The one thing that sparked my interest greatly was Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin, fresh off of Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo.” The only concern most people had was Gavin Hood as director and screenwriter, better known for “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” which was given much hatred. Despite this, Scott Card was also a producer for the film, so I had expected to see the changes made to be on his approval.

                As a fan of the book, I found many of the changes made to be acceptable, where as a few of them got very distracting. But what I DID find good in this film was INCREDIBLY good, and really surprised me as one of the best adaptations I’ve seen in a while.

                First off, the casting in this film is practically SPOT-ON. Despite being much older than the book had them, it still managed to be incredibly accurate. Asa Butterfield really embodied what Ender was in the book and much more. The way he talked, the look in his eyes, and even his presence was spot on the character in the book. Asa has really become one of my favorite young actors working today, and I see a bright future in his career as an actor. Harrison Ford as Colonel Graff was also a perfect choice, and actually manages to tame it down from some of his previous performances. Originally, the casting for Graff was said to be changed to a woman, and that they were considering Rosie O’Donnell and Janeane Garofalo; and I hate to be that guy, but I’m glad they went with Ford, because he really did a fantastic job in this role. He’s still had that strong presence to him, making him the big man at the top. Ford did this job perfectly, and there was no sign of him phoning this performance in. I honestly think he hasn’t been this good since “The Fugitive,” and that’s saying a lot.

                Hailee Steinfeld as Petra was also an excellent choice, and her character also has more involvement to the story here than in the book. She’s basically the helpful partner to the hero, and she did it especially well, and Steinfeld has really added much more to her credibility since “True Grit.” However, the biggest surprise to me was Bonzo Madrid, played by Moises Arias; and yes, I do mean the same little douche that was in “Hannah Montana” (or D-Grade “Jem” as I like to call it). Arias took me completely off guard in this role, and you can tell he was giving it his all in this performance. He was cold-blooded, unrespectable, and BECAME Bonzo in this movie. If the rest of this film was crap, I would still recommend seeing it just for Arias’ performance alone. The rest of the casting in this film was great and the actors who portray them also do a fantastic job; Viola Davis as Major Anderson, Aramis Knight as Bean was pretty good, Ben Kingsley as Mazer Rackham was also perfect, and most of the other child actors were also great to watch.

However, the only casting problem I have is with Abigail Breslin as Valentine, Ender’s sister. Don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t bad, far from it. It’s just that she wasn’t in the film enough, and that really pisses me off. It’s the same problem I have with A-list actors voicing taking most roles away from professional voice actors; you could have gotten someone else in the role, and it wouldn’t have made a difference. To have someone this talented be underused greatly, it makes you wonder why did they bother even getting them. In fact, there were quite a few things that I did find distracting that either didn’t feel right and/or felt incomplete.

For one, I found certain moments to be rushed, mostly in the beginning. The way they establish this world and Ender’s life felt under-developed, and the situation would probably make sense in terms of who these characters are, but they don't give us enough time to soak it in. The best example of that, is when Ender’s brother, Peter, starts to bully him after school. In the book, it’s one of the most psychological and emotional moments that really set the tone of the book. Here, it was performed in less than two minutes, and felt like they were trying to squeeze it in because it was in the book and they needed something to do with Peter. I also felt this film was holding back on the tone that book had. In the book, whenever there was a physical fight Ender was involved in, it was some of the most violent imagery you could imagine. I mean, this kid not only hurt people a lot, he actually beats them to death. Now the one thing that really bothered me about this movie, while just a minor nitpick, is the way they handled the ending of this film.

Note: This next paragraph contains spoilers of the ending in the book, as well as the movie. If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, skip the indented stuff.

                In the ending of the book, Ender has destroyed the Bugger homeworld, and has completely broken down about what he did. Now that they are at peace, the Earth is now entering into another World War, and they all want Ender as their commander for dictatorship. Because of this, Ender is to stay with the I.F, as Valentine goes up to the station to be with him, where he finds out that Peter is now in control of the war, due to him and Valentine controlling the people through the media. It’s then Ender and Valentine find the caverns that were in the game, and find the surviving queen egg of the Buggers, and Ender decides to travel the universe to find a proper place for the Buggers to repopulate and live on.

                That didn’t happen in this movie. The entire subplot with Peter was cut out of the film completely, they never addressed the next World War, and Ender finds the egg and takes off just a couple days after the final battle, without Valentine to join him. I was really annoyed by this, because this really would have shown a lot more dilemma and interest in the further story.

 At best, this would have probably added about another half hour to the film, to an already less than two hour movie. However, it is a nitpick, and maybe if they do decide to bring it up in flashback for a sequel, or they release an extended director’s cut, I’d understand that better. Speaking of which, Gavin Hood really proved that he's capable of adapting something that is true to both fans and movie goers alike. He gave this film such strong atmosphere, and didn’t even need to use 3D or IMAX to show that. THAT’S a damn good director if you ask me.

Overall, “Ender’s Game” is by far one of my favorite films of the year, and I am SO looking forward to the sequel if they decide to make one. It was fun, it adapted almost everything exact, and it had such excellent performances from each one of its cast.

Rating: 9/10