MIXED BAG! THOR: THE DARK WORLD REVIEW! + WORD OF THE DAY! 12/5/13!

Asgard [az-gard]
noun
1. Norse mythology. The home of the Aesir and location of Valhalla and the palaces of the individual gods: connected with the earth by the rainbow bridge, Bifrost.

EX. During the blog's hiatus, I finally got to watch Thor: The Dark World and I have to say that Marvel Studios has really found a good formula for their super hero films, especially impressive considering they pull off good sequels, and Thor 2 really left me wanting to spend another two hours in Asgard. Like the film, let's keep this review short and bearable (also like the awful joke at the top of the article).

WHO'S BETTER? THOR OR LOKI?

As a big sci-fi blockbuster for the whole family, Thor: The Dark World hits the right spots with an interesting, though often convoluted & underplayed plot, adventures in rich and visually fascinating worlds beyond our own, and all manner of monsters & machinery for our hero to smash and be smashed by in the course of the film. The special effects are right on par with The Avengers (2012) that set the bar with it's massive destruction and monster effects that make it the best, sort of big and dumb in the best sort of way, super hero movie of all time. But it's not the special effects that makes this movie stand out.

Starting with Iron Man (2008), the strongest asset of Marvel Studios has to be their casting department. Not just anyone can prance around in a simultaneously cool, iconic, and ridiculous costume, spouting off one-liners, and giving personality to a character with decades of material to work with-- without pissing off the fans. The casting of the Asgardians, with actors like Idris Elba, Rene Russo & Anthony Hopkins,  who can pull off the grandiose personalities of these god-like fantasy characters, is what makes this film great and, with better writing and more time spent amongst these character in Asgard, is what puts The Dark World above it's predecessor.

Especially, the casting of Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Tom Hiddleston as Loki (pictured in a ridiculous poster for the film in China), the latter of which has managed to practically steal the franchise. The brotherly dysfunction between Thor and Loki really carries the franchise, from moments of surprisingly genuinely stirring emotion created from their conflict to duo comedy with Loki playing off of Thor as the perfect straight man. I'm not sure where, but I think Loki once called Thor the "biggest, sweetest idiot in all the nine realms". Thor needs Loki as a foil to make his films more than just Thor bashing monsters for two hours and Loki needs Thor to have someone he can fool again and again. This is the foundation of the franchise and it really shines in this buddy brother movie.

Now, let's talk about the film's two small hang-ups that keep it from being the same sort of perfect experience as The Avengers; the underused villain and the overused mortals. The former is a more forgivable flaw because getting villains right can be difficult in these sorts of films, Loki being a special case himself, and the Thor films really just needs to give Thor an obstacle to overcome to build a plot. Yet, the Dark Elves were quite well-designed, with their albino creeper doll armor, cursed monster forms, and awesome blade themed ships. It would've been good to get to understand Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), so when Thor inevitably fights him we have some extra motivation to root for Thor. Or something. There was no "puny god" moment in Thor: The Dark World. The bigger flaw is the overuse of Natalie Portman's Doctor Foster and the equally frustrating scientist characters on Earth. They weren't awful, but they take up an obnoxious percentage of the film's run time that could've been better utilized on other elements such as Malekith. The film could've taken place completely in Asgard and stayed far away from Earth, maybe with a little scene where he goes to Earth at the end, and would've probably found it's place as the best Marvel film next to The Avengers.

All in all, Thor the Dark World is a film that any fan of the Marvel Studios franchises will find well worth the ticket of admission. The trip to Asgard is worth it.

Pretty frickin' sweet. 4/5.

WORD OF THE DAY! 9/10/13!

frolic [frol-ik]
noun
1. Fun, especially silly fun, merriment, gaiety, etc.
2. A party or shindig.
3. A prank or gag.
4. Playful behavior.
verb
5. To gambol about merrily, to act in frisky, light-spirited manner; a good romp.
6. To engage in party, merriment, fun, etc.

EX. Sometimes, you just gotta frolic. Like a moron. Especially like a moron. Sometimes you gotta frolic like a moron.

WTF WED! THOR LOVES LOKI & JON LOVES ARIN & INTERNET LOVES CAT!

ONEYNG'S THOR N' LOKI

First up we've got a completely untimely and yet... somehow perfectly prompt toon from the mind factories of OneyNG (Hellbenders) about every filmgoer's favorite half-brother demigods, Thor and Loki. In the vein of a recently internet sucessful vidja Wingardium Leviosa Harry Potter toon, it starts off with a simple pun or play on words before snowballing into an avalanche of WTF.

GAMES GRUMPS- "ARIN I LOVE YOU!"

Speaking of two brothers from another mother, I've got a classy Game Grumps fanimation about Jontron's and Egoraptor's... relationship. You might recognize the audio clip from a previously featured installment of Music Mon mentioning the scene where Egoraptor AKA Arin Hanson (who is engaged to a lovely Soozie Goose) loses his mind over a glitch in the terrible game Sonic '06 (that is currently in its 79th 10-20 min. installment). Check that scene out HERE.

SAD CHINESE PHARMACY CAT

And last but not least, in our grammatically awkward WTF Wed article, we've got a look at a another WTF video from Japan-- wait what? It's from CHINA?! WTF China...seriously? Anywho, the video is about a tabby cat going on adventure to find a herb to save his mistress's life only for it to turn out to be a pharmacy ad. Go figure.

 

WORD OF THE DAY! 2/20/13!

bell jar [bel-jawr]
noun
1. A bell-shaped glass jar or cover for protecting delicate instruments, bric-a-brac, or the like, or for containing gases or a vacuum in chemical experiments.

EX. There is something about the proverbial "devil in the bell jar" that appeals to my sense of visual and literary taste. To capture and contain evil, to put it on display, makes it an example. To combat evil, one may argue, you must understand evil. If you put a villain in a regular jail cell that means that you don't want to see them and want to hide them away. The problem with hiding evil is that it makes it all the more effective. When people forget evil and fail to understand it, they're almost always doomed to be defeated by it.

Then, of course, there is the dramatic license of having the villain contained, but not sequestered away from outside contact. This is the reason we love scenes where a villain taunts the hero from inside their glass prisons, because the glass represents the thin and fragile barrier between the two characters and how easy it would for the evil to escape.

I think there is certainly something to it-- after all, putting something on display and under glass makes it all the more... tantalizing...

WORD OF THE DAY! 10/7/12.

cognizance [kog-nuh-zuhns]
noun

1. Awareness, realization, or knowledge; notice; perception.

2. Law.

a. Judicial notice as taken by a court in dealing with a cause.

b. The right of taking jurisdiction, as possessed by a court.

c. Acknowledgment; admission, as a plea admitting the fact alleged in the declaration.

3. The range or scope of knowledge, observation, etc.: Such understanding is beyond his cognizance.

4. Heraldry . A device by which a person or a person's servants or property can be recognized; badge.

EX. Joss Whedon's The Avengers is the most important super hero movie of all time because it simultaneously captured the style of story-telling in comic books and the coolest/funnest elements of that medium in a way that it had never been achieved. I'd argue that this was the closest experience that non-comic book fans can get to that of reading/enjoy comic books. This cognizance between fans of these heroes, from the most hardcore reader to the older tv fans to the littlest kid, is what makes this film stand alone amongst three decades of super hero movies.

Also, in my humble opinion, this is the only time television or film has captured a live-action hulk without being embarrassing or boring. 

Sure, the movie has problems; all comic books do. Even the very best comic books have plot holes. Its practically part of the media; part of the price of admission is enjoying the comic despite the occasional gap in the story or stupid moment. Its about the big picture.

WORD OF THE DAY! 7/23/12.

status quo [stat-uhs-kwoh}
noun
1. The existing state or condition.

EX. This post helps return me within the status quo held by the blog for months.

WORD OF THE DAY! 7/14/12.

blood-brothers/blood brothers [bluhd-bruhth-er]

noun

1. A person's brother by birth.

2. A male person bound to another by ties of great friendship.

3. Something usually associated with or thought to exist inseparably from another thing, quality, circumstance, etc.: Humility is often the blood brother of patience.

4. A male established in a close relationship with another male through the performance of a specific ritual, as the commingling of blood.

EX. Pets are rarely brothers by blood but I they tend to become blood-brothers, despite rivalry and shared contempt, in order to survive their confinement.

WORD OF THE DAY! 4/9/12.

sibling rivalry [sib-ling-rahy-buhl-ree]
noun
1. A type of competition or animosity between children, whether related by blood or not. Such competition is particularly intense between brothers and brothers, sisters and sisters, children of the same or near the same age, and between children with talents. It is an expression of the frustrations between children to compete for attention and to define themselves as being apart from their rival.

EX.  In the 2008 film Step Brothers, two middle-aged men compete for control of the household like children when their parents get married. Their sibling rivalry, a rivalry built on man-child stupidity, is the amusing crux of the film and the two principle actors, Will Ferrel and John C. Reily, pull off the ridiculous film with their physical comedy, crafted delivery, and legendary chemistry.

An even more interesting pair of sibling rivals are Marvel's Thor and Loki, who compete for their father's respect, the people's attention, and control of Asgard. While Thor would happily compete against his brother in a friendly rivalry, Loki takes their rivalry too far and makes himself a villain to win their struggle. The rivalry is complicated by Loki's desires to be the ruler of Asgard AND, despite his methods, earn the respect of his fellow Asgardians, especially his father and brother. It is this sibling rivalry that not only propels the 2011 film Thor, but also has propelled Loki into becoming the main villain in the upcoming Avengers film.

Speaking of sibling rivalry...

Apparently, Damian has a beef with Tim Drake.