No Shit: Disney Likes Chris Pratt For INDIANA JONES

After the disastrous misfire of Crystal Skull*, we all collectively decided that Indiana Jones was probably better left alone.  Everyone except Disney that is, who bought up the franchise rights in a package deal with Star Wars back in 2013 and have been looking to reboot the series with a charismatic new star.  While Star Wars is on pace to dominate theaters this coming Christmas, things have been fairly quiet on the Dr. Jones front aside from some unsubstantiated rumors of Bradley Cooper's involvement.

Now we can add Chris Pratt's name to the list.  Deadline's story just says that Disney is pursuing Pratt, which feels like a no-brainer to the point that I question how real this might be.  After the success of Guardians Of The Galaxy and with Jurassic World on the way, there is no doubt that Pratt is at that top of every studio's casting wish list for at least one major franchise.  Short of also sending Andy Dwyer to a galaxy far, far away, Indy is probably the next biggest pre-sold property Disney is developing at the moment.  It would be stupid for them NOT to be pursing Pratt.

Sidenote: What if Pratt ends up cast in one of the Star Wars stand alone films?  If they're really looking at him for Indy, they MUST be considering him for young Han Solo.  Could Pratt pull off the Disney trifecta of Marvel, Star Wars and Indiana Jones?

Do we really need a new Indiana Jones?  Of course not.  We also don't need new Ghostbusters nor do we need a new Snake Plissken, but there's simply no stopping these things now.  Until they secure a writer and/or director, it remains to be seen whether or not we'd get a total reboot of the character or if we'd just get further adventures of Indiana Jones which maintained some continuity with the previous films.  Conventional wisdom would say a full on reboot, but I think Harrison Ford would totally show up as older Indy to bookend the film.

I'm not entirely sure that I'd buy Burt Macklin as an archaeology professor, but at the end of the day, we could do much worse than Pratt.  We could end up with Bradley Cooper.




*I finally rewatched this recently and I maintain that while the film just does not work, I still appreciate what Spielberg was going for.  There's no way to ignore Ford's age in that movie, so setting it in the 50's and telling a story filled with the iconography of that era - atomic bomb tests and flying saucers - is hardly the worst decision they could have made.  The worst decision they could have made was casting Shia LaBeouf.

Dave Bautista Takes An Odd Job In BOND 24

I'm slowly becoming obsessed with those Funko Pop vinyl figures depicting child-like characters from my favorite movies and TV shows.  My wife and I each ordered Groot bobble-heads that were supposed to ship last month.  They have yet to arrive.  I've been contemplating snagging a Drax figure in the meantime, because he was both a physical badass and a comic delight, and because I like placate my growing emotional ennui with craven consumerism.

Bautista, a former pro-wrestler, was easily the biggest question mark when it came to the cast of Guardians Of The Galaxy, but now producers all over town want to be in the Dave Bautista business. First in line is Barbara Broccoli and the still untitled 24th James Bond movie.  After adding French actress Lea Seydoux as a Bond Girl to be sexed up and/or killed late in the movie, director Sam Mendes has officially snagged Drax to play a new iconic henchman who may or may not be called Hinx.  No word yet as to whether or not the character will sport either maniacal dentistry or lethal haberdashery.

I'm all for Bautista continuing his high-profile run and I'm excited to see him show off his evil side (if you want a little taste of what's to come, I'd recommend his work in Riddick) but the Bond henchmen are typically not the most verbose of characters.  Hopefully Mendes will get the chance to utilize not just Bautista's imposing stature, but also his charming personality to create a character that is memorable for his personality along with what's sure to be a very specific method of dispatching British agents.

Now, where's my Groot bobblehead...

Podcast Episode 25: The GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Are Here To Save The Summer

To quote a certain blaster-toting raccoon, "Oh...YEAH."

This summer has been pretty fucking grim.  With the exception of 22 Jump Street, it's been a a steady stream of mediocre box office filler like Hercules or outright trainwrecks like Transformers: Age Of Extinction.  That's not to say that the summer's been a complete waste, but even the few bright spots like Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, Snowpiercer and X-Men: Days Of Future Past have been largely dark and serious affairs - all three movies center around global apocalypse!  Where's the humor?  Where's the rollicking adventure?  WHERE'S THE GODDAMN FUN?

Turns out the fun lies with a sentient tree on the far side of the galaxy.

Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy, by far the company's biggest gamble to date, is an outright cinematic miracle.  On paper this, this movie simply should not exist.  Seriously, the very idea of a studio giving the Troma-raised James Gunn $170 million to make an outer space movie starring That Guy From Parks & Rec, a professional wrestler, a green-skinned assassin, a walking tree who only speaks three words and a smart-ass cyborg raccoon is absolutely preposterous.  The fact that it not only exists but has the same pound for pound entertainment value as The Avengers, a movie that needed five other films to set the stage before it could even happen, is mind boggling.

And yet, all these things are true.

Guardians Of The Galaxy finally sends the Marvel universe rocketing out into space and it's a fascinating place packed with oddball characters with whom you can't help but fall in love.  Sure, each character has their own particular set of quirks (Drax doesn't understand metaphors, Star-Lord is a font of 80's pop-culture references) that are essentially appealing on their own but it's the performances that truly elevate the material.  Chris Pratt cements himself as legit movie star (surely a relief to the Jurassic World producers) and Dave Bautista is an absolute joy on-screen, while Bradley Cooper brings a both acerbic wit and a wounded vulnerability to Rocket.  And for all the jokes about Vin Diesel playing a tree who only has one line, you'd be surprised just how much context and emotion can be conveyed solely in the phrase "I am Groot."  Special recognition should also be paid to Zoe Saldana and Karen Gillan as Gamora and Nebula, the daughters of Thanos.  Both characters are a tad clunky on the page, constantly tasked with delivering necessary exposition and explanation.  Yet each of these actresses just ooze so much charm and personality on screen that they're almost able to trick the audience into walking away thinking their characters are more substantial.  Still, they're each total badasses, and while their characters feel a bit thin I expect both will be much better served in their second outing.

This wonderfully endearing collection of misfits is what sets Guardians apart not just from the rest of 2014's summer movies, but all other Marvel movies as well.  The Avengers is probably the closest analog here, but even they are just a bunch of folks who fight together out of a sense of duty and honor.  They feel more like a group of friendly coworkers who do a job and then go home to their respective lives.  By the time the end credits roll, the Guardians are already so much more than that.  They're not just friends, they're family.  That's a dynamic that we haven't really seen in Marvel's previous films and it's so simple and affecting that I didn't even realize it was something I had been missing.

And that music!  THAT MUSIC!  Holy hell.  I really dig the score by Tyler Bates, particularly his main theme, but I defy you to walk out of this movie without humming any of the ridiculously catchy tunes that create the rich musical tapestry which seems happily omnipresent throughout the film's running time.  My only gripe is that Guardians didn't come out in June.  If it had, Peter Quill's Awesome Mix Volume 1 (available for download, naturally) would have absolutely been everyone's soundtrack of the summer.

Episode 25 of the podcast, featuring the return of my brother Tim, sees us breaking the film down character by character, along with lots of speculation as to how the Guardians might fit into Marvel's bigger picture heading into Phase 3.  Jamie reveals her own master plan for how Captain/Ms. Marvel should be woven into the MCU and, in light of Simon West's stated desire to see a space-based Con-Air 2, we all list off movies that deserve a crazy sequel set in outer space.  Also, I'm an idiot for not only saying there are five Infinity Stones (there are six) but also for referring to Yondu as Yondo through the entire podcast.  What can I say?  It was late and I still had to pack for an early flight.

Next Week: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with special guests!

Podcast Episode 23: THE RAID 2: BERANDAL Is The GODFATHER II Of Action Movies

The Raid: Redemption is an incredibly tight little action flick, delivering a streamlined and compact story about a squad of cops forced to fight their way out of a tenement slum after a bust gone bad.  It's punctuated by loads of intense, brutal action sequences that propel the film forward at breakneck speed and will have you screaming at your television in horror and delight.  Its economy and intelligence make it easily one of the best action movies of the past ten years, and the idea of a sequel seems instantly foolish.

And then The Raid 2: Berandal happened.

Holy.  Fucking.  Shit.

The Raid 2 isn't an great action movie.  It's just a straight up incredible film.  End of line.  The fact that it also contains some of the most astounding action scenes I've ever witnessed almost feels like icing on the cake as opposed to the meat of the dish.  Director Gareth Evans (not to be confused with Godzilla director Gareth Edwards) performs numerous feats of what Bart refers to as "camera magic" here, managing to shoot from seemingly impossible positions and giving the audience a sense of immersion during combat without depending solely on the use of quick cuts and shaky cam.  And when he's not shooting action, the shot composition is still captivating, giving way to scope and beauty that feels all too rare in today's cinema regardless of genre.

Everything in The Raid 2 is cranked up to eleven.  As opposed to a simple premise in a single location spanning an afternoon, we've got an intricate crimeland drama that bounces all over Jakarta and unfolds over years.  Rama, our hero and the only element tying the two films together, undergoes a dark and serious evolution, transforming from idealistic rookie cop to tortured and weary undercover operative.  You could argue that the fights in The Raid start to feel repetitive after a while.  (You'd be wrong, but you can argue it.)  The Raid 2 offers a wide variety of violence.  There are executions, betrayals, subway attacks, prison riots and a full-on brawl in a single toilet stall.  You like car chases?  Oh mama, does The Raid 2 have a car chase for you.  You've got a wild-haired hitman who takes on a night club full of attackers.  You've got a goon who kills guys with a baseball bat and a ball.  You've got a hot deaf lady whose weapon of choice is a pair of hammers.  And through it all you've got star Iko Uwais performing inhuman feats of strength and agility.  Most importantly, all this insane action works in service of a smart and expertly told organized crime story that ranks right up there with all your American favorites of the genre.  It's The Godfather meets The Departed, but overflowing with more blood and brutality than both of those films combined.

Bart and I saw a double feature of both Raid films over the weekend and we chat about each film in Episode 23 of the podcast while also expressing cautious optimism over a proposed set of Universal Monster remakes under the banner of a shared universe.  We also speculate on what we can expect to hear from Marvel at San Diego Comic Con as they begin to roll out Phase 3 and introduce a whole new set of increasingly weird heroes.

If all the stars align, next week's podcast will cover both Luc Besson's female-centric actioner Lucy as well as Brett Ratner's hopefully hilarious Hercules, starring Dwayne Johnson with a lion for a hat.

Thoughts On Last Night's 17 Minute GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Preview, Plus A Bonus Third Trailer

You guys.

HOLY.  SHIT.

I know I said a few weeks back that I was going into media blackout mode regarding Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy, but last night I broke my own rules and attended a 17 minute free preview screening.  I was initially very hesitant to go, but my wife (who is often smarter than I) went ahead and secured the tickets and it seemed like a fun sort of mini-date.  I've done these sort of events before, notably when Warner Brothers debuted the opening mid-air attack sequence from The Dark Knight Rises, but never this close to a film's release date.

I'm not gonna give you a blow-by-blow of exactly what I saw on screen, mostly because I'm not a douche.  But rather than give us the film's opening scene (which I expect will be mostly young Peter Quill getting abducted and sent hurtling into space) we're instead treated to a big action sequence set inside an intergalactic prison and it feels like it's the first time that Star Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot are forced to really come together and work as a team.  It was a perfect introduction to each individual character and I was really struck by just how distinct and fascinating everyone was even with only minimal background information - Rocket doesn't know what a raccoon is and Drax is likely to emerge as an unlikely source of hilarity since he comes from a race of people who communicate everything literally, so the concept of a metaphor is completely foreign to him.  (It's like the opposite of the "Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra" episode of Star Trek: TNG.)  But the relationships between each character were also great - Rocket and Groot are already best buds, but their relationship with Peter Quill is a little more adversarial while Drax and Gamora seem to be tenuous allies at best.

On top of all that, we got a look at some great practical aliens, creative, fast-paced action, effective use of 3D and exactly the sense of humor and just plain old FUN that I've been hoping for from this movie.  I didn't think it was possible, but it appears that I've somehow managed to underestimate Guardians Of The Galaxy.  This thing is going to be a MONSTER.  Get ready for lots of Rocket costumes this Halloween because 10-year-olds are going to absolutely flip their shit once they meet that foul-mouthed little hellion.

After the prison scene we were treated to a slightly longer version of the trailer below, which I think is still totally great in that there's lots of fun new characters revealed (Blue-skinned, mohawked Michael Rooker ahoy!) without giving away any real plot.  Plus they've finally eschewed Blue Swede's Hooked On A Feeling, which was really starting to annoy, in favor of Cherry Bomb by The Runaways.  So prepare to have that stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

I think that Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes is going to seriously impress me this weekend, but after last night's preview event my expectations for Guardians Of The Galaxy could not possibly be any higher.

Get ready.

The UK Trailer for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Is The Last One I'll Watch

As much as we all like to shit on J.J. Abrams for his Mystery Box bullshit, I do share his sentiment that too many films today oversaturate audiences when it comes to marketing.  We get four different trailers and a dozen various TV spots that collectively reveal somewhere in the neighborhood of a half hour of movie before you've ever walked into the theater, and that certainly dilutes your sense of discovery when the movie finally unspools before your eyes.  It's for exactly that reason that I typically engage in a full on media blackout in the last month or two before the release of a big tentpole film.  I ignore YouTube links, I change the channel when an ad plays on TV...I've even been known to close my eyes, block my ears and softly hum through trailers that play when I'm seeing something else in the theater.  Usually a teaser and one full length trailer is enough to sell me on a movie and if I'm already on board at that point, I don't need to see anything else.

After today I'll be performing this same kabuki routine when it comes to Guardians Of The Galaxy, which is in a tight race with Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes for my most anticipated movie of the summer.  I've been in the tank for this movie from the get-go and nothing I've seen has done anything to assuage my excitement.  This new international trailer is the first to give us a sense of Peter Quill's overall journey as well as our best taste to date of Rocket Racoon in action and I love everything about it.  Marvel's marketing machine is starting to seriously kick into high gear, having spent the last week releasing a series of character posters.  The best one is, unsurprisingly, the one with the gun-toting raccoon standing on the shoulders of a sentient tree person.

If you still need to be convinced that this movie is your cup of galactic tea, well then I feel sorry for you.  Maybe this will finally do the trick.

Start Your Week Off Right With The New Trailer For GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Captain America: The Winter Soldier kicked off the summer in grand style.  Now it looks almost certain that Guardians Of The Galaxy will serve as the appropriately kickass bookend and close the summer out with a goddamn bang.

Every look at James Gunn's entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe looks even more preposterously fun than the one before it.  Seriously, I still can't believe that I live in a world where an outer space adventure movie starring Chris Pratt, a foul-mouthed raccoon and a walking tree-person voiced by Vin Diesel is allowed to exist, let alone be bankrolled by a major studio to the tune of $150 million.  And make no mistake, every single penny looks to be up on screen.  It feels like the entire movie takes place in one those richly detailed worlds that Guillermo del Toro leaves dangling in the margins of his movies, places like the Bone Slums of Pacific Rim or the Troll Market of Hellboy 2.  Are we really gonna get a planet shaped like a giant skull?  Fuck yeah.

I'm sure there are those out there who will complain that they still don't know what this movie is actually about.  Those people are dumb people.  If rocket boots, space prisons, John C. Reilly: Intergalactic Beat Cop and an upright raccoon with a giant laser gun hoisted up on his shoulder while scratching his crotch doesn't put your ass in the theater, you're barking up the wrong Groot.

As a bonus, here's a poster that should be hanging in dorm rooms all across the country this fall.  Don't let me down, college kids.

Podcast Episode 7: ROBOCOP In Name Only

"Wanna feel it?"

Paul Verhoeven's original Robocop is one of my absolute favorite films.  It is, quite simply, perfect.  More importantly, it's a movie that is so much more than the sum of its parts.  Sure it's ultraviolent and pulpy, but it's also one of the best single critiques of Reagan-era politics and the rise of corporate power and influence that I've ever seen committed to film.  The fact that it's also a shining beacon of both practical and stop-motion effects is merely the icing on the cake.

Robocop is lightning in a bottle, so the idea of trying to recreate it seems foolhardy at best, idiotic at worst.  Thankfully director Jose Padilha seemed to realize this from the outset and instead uses the idea of a police officer turned corporately-owned cybernetic enforcer and uses it as a springboard to examine drone warfare policies, the struggle between humanity and machinery, and the concept of free will.  Those are all interesting, worthy sci-fi concepts and I appreciate that Padilha is bringing something new to the table and not taking the easy route by mindlessly regurgitating familiar dialogue and mimicking similar action beats like the dismal remake of Verhoeven's Total Recall.

I just wish he hadn't done it under the banner of Robocop.

If Padilha hadn't been hamstrung trying to fit into the box of a pre-existing property, he might have had a little more room to explore those heady topics in a more satisfying manner.  Instead he's stuck "updating the character" and dwelling upon the emo side of Alex Murphy, two things that no fan of Robocop (a.k.a. the target audience) really gives a shit about.  I actually wish this had just been an original story, because if it didn't come with all sorts of preconceptions, expectations and emotional baggage it might have been quite interesting.  It's not a bad movie...it's just not Robocop.

In the seventh episode of our podcast, Bart and I discuss all this in greater depth while also trying to figure out why the character Robocop is barely the protagonist of his own movie, why Michael Keaton was so tragically squandered and why the hell they didn't just lose the arm.  We also chat about the first trailer for Guardians Of The Galaxy, the freshly minted cast of Fantastic Four, and why it's probably a good thing that Marvel isn't in charge of all their marquee properties.

I'm really happy about the way the podcast has continued to evolve and I'm particularly proud of this episode, which is our longest one yet by a full 36 seconds.  We laid down one more episode this weekend that I'm REALLY excited about.  Hopefully I'll be able to get it out before I hit movie 365 at the end of the week.  And after my Final Screening event this Saturday night, Bart and I are planning on putting out roughly one podcast episode a week, so I hope you're enjoying these recordings as much as we are.

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Title: Robocop
Director: Jose Padilha
Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Abby Cornish, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael K. Williams, Jay Baruchel, Jennifer Ehle
Year Of Release: 2014
Viewing Method: Theatrical - AMC Boston Common

THOR: THE DARK WORLD Is A Funny And Frenetic Course Correction

"Why are there so many shoes here?"

Flying in the face of all logic and history, the various franchises in Marvel's cinematic universe only seem to get better with each installment.  (Not counting Iron Man 2, which would easily be the weakest of the Phase One films were it not for the the lethal combination of Rockwell and Rourke.)   It's a rare sight to be sure, and if this trend continues then I suspect that by the time Avengers 3 rolls around, my head will simply explode from too much awesome.

The first Thor was problematic at best.  Bart and I talked about it while recording my second podcast episode (coming soon!) and I think it's the kind of movie that might actually hold up better on repeat viewings because you can really latch onto the stuff that works (a.k.a. most of the Asgard stuff) and then go make a sandwich during the stuff that doesn't (a.k.a. all of the Earth stuff).  But that film totally nailed the single most important thing it had to do right: Chris Hemsworth is absolutely perfect as Thor, so good that you're willing to stick with him through a middling plot on the promise that you'll get to see him in a better story somewhere down the road.  Thor: The Dark World delivers on that promise.

What's most striking is the film's easy confidence.  In his first adventure, Thor is presented as a sort of buffoonish frat boy, someone who wants all the adventure and glory of being king without the burdens of responsibility that come with the crown.  It's all about his journey from arrogant fool to wise leader, and the fact that said journey felt half-baked and played second fiddle to Agent's Coulson's New Mexico Adventure was one of my main sources of frustration.  But when we catch up with Thor here, he's not only fought off Loki's Chitauri army in New York, he's also put down chaos and uprisings across many worlds and once again brought peace to the Nine Realms.  But he no longer takes any joy from battle, recognizing it instead as a solemn duty.  Gone are the days of Thor (both the character and the franchise) rushing around haphazardly trying to find himself while learning not to be such an ass.  Instead of robbing Thor of his mighty hammer Mjolnir, this film allows him to wield it with instinctive ease, as if the hammer were truly an extension of his own body.  This Thor is a leader of men.  Nay, a leader of gods.

The story is still pretty bare bones, but at least this one has some gravitas: Malekith, leader of the Dark Elves who literally predates the universe, wants to wipe out all of existence an supplant it with his own using a swirling MacGufifn called the Aether.  He was almost successful 5,000 years ago when the Nine Realms were last in total alignment, but he was defeated by Odin's father Bor.  Now the Realms are once again about to align and Malekith is back to finish the job.  So it's your basic "stop the bad guy with the super weapon" plot, and in truth Christopher Eccleson is tragically wasted as Malekith, a villain who's virtually devoid of all personality short of pure menace.  But at least this time the fate of the entire universe hangs in the balance, which is a fair step up from the fate of Random New Mexico Town.  Not only that, but we actually get to visit at least four or five of the Nine Realms, which really broadens the scope of the story while setting the stage for some of the larger, more cosmic moves that Marvel will be making with next year's Guardians Of The Galaxy.

Whatever the story may lack in originality, it makes up in sheer execution.  In fact, I often had to remind myself that I was watching director Alan Taylor's big screen debut.  I'm a fan of his work on Game Of Thrones and that surely helped prepare him for the sort of heightened reality of a superhero franchise that largely revolves around palace intrigue.  Whereas before everyone was trying their damnedest to make everything sound Shakespearean, now they're able to breathe a bit and let the elaborate sets and costumes do the work.  Taylor absolutely runs circles around Kenneth Branagh, although it probably helps that every third shot isn't a Dutch angle.  But Taylor also manages to make the earthbound stuff interesting as well.  There's a fabulous blending of sci-fi and fantasy here, and while that concept was vaguely discussed in the first Thor, here it's actually executed with a deft touch, until you've got a bunch of physicists using homemade inventions to battle an invading force powered by an ancient mystical artifact.  That's fucking cool.  The action sequences are a huge step up both in terms of quality and quantity.  In fact, the film virtually bounces along from one set piece to the next, but each one is exceedingly well staged both physically and emotionally; every battle has clear stakes and some kind of hook or setting that sets it apart from all the rest, whether it be something simple like a throne room sword fight or something extremely elaborate, like the film's final battle that hinges upon the use of some really fun Portal-esque physics.

But it's not all just a battle royale.  For all its dour marketing, this movie is funny!  Really funny!  And I'm not even counting poor Stellan Skarsgard, who's been largely relegated to a pantsless clown here.  It helps that the cast all seems a bit more comfortable in their own skin this time around, so we can get more character based humor, as opposed to the first film's zany fish-out-of-water stuff.  One of my favorite jokes (aside from a quick but excellent cameo halfway through the film) is a simple, throwaway bit where Mjolnir is zooming around the sky trying to catch up with Thor as he's teleported from location to location.  That by itself is pretty entertaining, but at one point it whips past Kat Dennings' Darcy, (greatly improved this time around) who calls out after it and once again butchers the hammer's name.  In fact, I think she calls it "Meow Meow."  It's dumb, but it slayed me.

The Dark World has its problems to be sure, but they're mostly minor quibbles.  The Naked Selvig stuff is absurdly broad and really toes the line of annoyance.  Anthony Hopkins doesn't sleepwalk through the film so much as he just seems annoyed to be there.  It might not be quite so jarring were it not for Rene Russo, whom you'd be forgiven for having no memory of in the first film.  Last time she was essentially a grieving prop, but Russo has turned Queen Frigga into a smart, ass-kicking lady in a film full of smart, ass-kicking ladies.  We finally get a sense of what she really means to both Odin and Thor, but it's Frigga's relationship with Loki that's really heartbreaking and provides even more layers for an already complex character.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but Russo might be the sneaky star of this movie.

I can't believe I've gotten this far without talking about Loki.  Hiddleston deserves a lot of credit, as I think there was a serious danger of Loki-fatigue after his role in Avengers.  But the character is given a really wonderful arc as Thor's semi-willing partner in crime that allows him to grow a bit and perhaps even reclaim some of his soul without ever losing his trademark mischievous guile.  You never quite trust Loki, but you do empathize with him a bit.  Part of that comes from the writing, but mostly it's the quiet humanity that Hiddleston brings to the role.  There's a scene about halfway through where Thor visits him in prison and while at first Loki's cell appears immaculate and well furnished, Thor instantly realizes that it's just another one of his brother's trademark illusions and demands Loki show his true self.  The trickster does, revealing a trashed cell and the distraught demi-god lying crumpled in the corner.  It's a simple but strong moment for both characters, proving that Thor has learned from the past ("Are you ever not going to fall for that?") and that Loki might be more scared and petulant child than evil overlord.  Loki's a character that seemed destined for stagnation, but instead he's only gotten more interesting with each outing.  If Marvel announced a Loki film tomorrow...well that's a terrible idea, but I might still show up just for Hiddleston.

And then there's Lady Siff and The Warriors Three.  Aside from the brief but excellent prison break sequence in the first half, they still don't seem to know what to do with these guys.  In fact, they all disappear halfway through the film, except for Hogun who actually bows out in the first ten minutes.  It's a real shame, as they all manage to do some pretty solid work in their short screen time.  Zachary Levi is a huge swashbuckling upgrade from the wooden Josh Dallas.  It's easy to see why they wanted him the first time around and I left the theater wishing there was an Errol Flynn biopic in development somewhere.  Jaimie Alexander really connects with Hemsworth and makes Lady Siff feel more and more like the warrior woman that Thor is supposed to end up with.  In fact, I was sure they were laying the groundwork for the demise of Jane Foster late in the film.  The romance angle was pretty rushed the first time around and it's not much more fleshed out here, coasting almost entirely on the charm of Portman and Hemsworth.  At this point I think that's the best we're going to get out of this franchise.

Still, this is a vast improvement over the first Thor.  With no more Iron Man movies on the horizon and no plans for Mark Ruffalo to get a standalone Hulk film, that leaves Thor and Captain America as the only Avengers with established franchises.  Winter Soldier looks like it could be the best Marvel film yet and I expect that Cap will be doing a lot of the heavy lifting for Phase Two.  But a week ago Thor felt like simply another cog in the Marvel machine, something to tide me over until the surefire madness of Guardians Of The Galaxy.  (Wait till you get a load of that post-credit stinger!)

Now I'm genuinely excited to see where this franchise goes.




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Title: Thor: The Dark World
Director: Alan Taylor
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Christopher Eccleston, Rene Russo, Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgard, Zachary Levi, Jaimie Alexander
Year Of Release: 2013
Viewing Method: Theatrical - AMC Boston Common (2D)