Thor...was an amazing movie!

A truism in movie-going is “cater to your audience” and Thor, from Marvel Studios, definitely did that.

Not to be outdone in their catering, so did the theatre itself. Anyone who has gone to the movies in the last decade can let out a collective groan at the memory of more-than-one occurrence of sitting down to enjoy the main feature you paid to see and being forced to sit through twenty-plus minutes of previews. Often times, several of the previews are clearly not for the expected audience attending the movie (example: preview for Winnie the Pooh before Scream).

Thor had no such disappointments or annoyances. My screening had just four previews and all of them came to play. The first was an extended preview for the much-anticipated Green Lantern movie, followed by a preview for the new X-men: First Class movie, which I’ve seen, but was no less impressive. Next was an extended preview for the new J.J. Abrams/Steven Spielberg collaboration, Super 8. The fourth was for Captain America which was clearly a shameless plug for the connection between Thor and the upcoming 2012 movie release of The Avengers, but it wouldn’t be Hollywood if there wasn’t at least one shameless plug involved.

Thor, staring Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek, Red Dawn-2011) and Natalie Portman (Star Wars, Beautiful Girls) does well what so many comic book movies do terribly: it gives you exactly what you walked in expecting and manages not to disappoint or trip over itself to cater to a broader audience than just comic book fans.

The main villain in Thor is Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Thor’s half-brother. The secondary villains are the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. Granted, this may seem like an almost too-obvious choice in adversaries for Thor but Kenneth Branagh (director) does an exemplary job of not letting the story get away from itself.

Asgard plays a significant role in Thor, which is a visual treat. From a special effects standpoint the realms of Asgard, Jotunheim and, to what extent you need special effects, Midgard (Earth) are all portrayed wonderfully.

The plot of Thor revolves around the envy Loki feels for his half-brother, Thor’s own bravado and, in the end, reconciliation and acceptance.

To quote the friend I went to see Thor with, “Marvel really has gotten their act together when it comes to movies.” The last part of that statement is telling, “when it comes to movies,” which is true but also portrays the belief many of us harbor that Marvel Comics is out of sorts in how they handle business. But in the many-year ramp up to the Avengers movie coming out next year, Marvel has regained much of the respect it threw away with producing horrible movies like Daredevil and Elektra. It shows the importance of Marvel taking control of their product and putting it under the umbrella of Marvel Studios.

Overall Thor is an epic movie with plenty of action, adventure, destruction and visual pleasures; everything a movie-goer could ask for. It gets a rating of (out of 4)

Enjoy your movie-going experience!

Tb (JQ)

Reality vs. Surreality

We truly live in a world where this line is blurred, what with 24-hour "reality" television networks that focus on anything and everything from the benign to outlandish and idiotic. I mean, when un-celeb, celebrities can regain some semblance of stardom through so-called reality television, what has the world come to?

I want to blame Facebook and Myspace, Friendster, Twitter and those that came before it whose names I cannot even be bothered to remember much less "Google" to find the names of. I want to blame them for making the world as it is, but I can't. The minds of today's youth were destroyed long before Myspace and the rest were even a million-dollar glimmer in the eyes of their obnoxious creators.

I harken back to "Basketball" (Trey Parker/Matt Stone/Carmen Electra, if you've not seen it I highly recommend) where there was a line of dialogue I will paraphrase here; kids today have an attention span that can only be measured in microseconds...and it was a truism all the way back in 1998 when that film was released, even moreso today. I am a product of this technological system, I cannot deny this.

When left to my own devices I will chose to use technology to keep my attention more often than I will a book or a comic. Granted, the things I can do on my iPhone are more immediately entertaining and take little to no time to get into. Instant gratification is one of my many vices.

Another thing that's changed a lot since the boom of the technological age is alone-ness. Is one truly alone if they are connected to the internet? And by that idea, if one has a cell phone of any kind that has internet access is that person ever truly alone? I would argue that they are not.

Dictionary.com defines alone as, "separate, apart, or isolated from others" and if one has access to the internet, to instant messaging, to facebook, to twitter...are they actually separate, apart or isolated from others? It would seem not, wouldn't it.

If reality is what we can see and touch, smell and taste and surreality is dreamlike, unreal and fantastic...does it not stand to reason that these two ideas are constantly blurred with the world as it is today?

Think about it.

Forever indebted to your gracious readership,

Tb (JQ)

Dirty little secrets...

So I was...suckered? Convinced? Intrigued? Something like that, into watching Glee.

Damn you Netflix and the convenience of Instant Viewing! *shakes fist*...ok not really mad at them...kinda sorta totally love Instant Viewing.

But I digress...Glee.

So it was decided over the past weekend that we'd watch Glee, because my lady hadn't seen it but was intrigued. My response, of course, was to quote Community, "I hate Glee...I don't see the appeal at all." - Jeff Winger. But, it turns out, it's more like "my so called life" with singing than anyone on the show would admit.

It has the same melodrama and teen pregnancy and awful high school jocks and all the rest of it that nearly every show that has come before it (including the likes of Parker Lewis Can't Lose) has had. With the added benefit of singing.

The real tragedy of watching Glee is not in the enjoyment, which is kinda...inevitable, if only for the superfluous frolicking of several hot "wannabe teens" (meaning they're playing teenagers but are actually in their mid-20's). But no, it's not that, it's this: watching it made me actually conjure the thought, "I wonder what High School Musical is like..." Please, god, no.


I quickly removed that thought from my mind, cruciatus curse style, and have not since been inspired to do anything quite as stupid.

The truly flawed part of the show is that they have to create drama. And I'm not talking about the natural drama that occurs when the boys and girls in the group jump from person to person as their hormones fly out of control. No. I'm talking about drama of, "we have to place at Regional's or the club is finished!" oh, no!

I'm going to spoil the ending for you...they don't place at Regional's. A panel of "celebrity" judges votes against them in the most insane way possible. But, wait...the club doesn't get canceled!

Now, the why's and how comes of this are far too in-depth for me to go into here. But sufficed to say that I saw it coming without even trying to figure it out.

It's a cute show. Are they really singing? probably not always. Do I know even half the songs? Nope. But can I enjoy it as an entertaining conjecture of reality versus surreality? Sure.

So if you have Netflix, check out the Pilot. Give it at least that chance, if you like it...thank me later. If you hate it, feel free to blame me.

That's all for now,

Tb (Jq)

Kung Fu Panda 2 - Review

Well folks, I realize I've been away from the blog-o-sphere for a little while...but only actually, not really. Confused? You should be.

The majority of you who read my blog (aside, I'm assuming from my apparent fans in Hungary, Mexico and Germany) also follow me on Twitter/Facebook so you're already well aware of where I spend much of my writing time, www.8daysageek.com where I mostly do reviews of comics and occasionally review movies as well, like Thor and upcoming I will review Green Lantern, Harry Potter and Captain America.

But some things don't really apply to the site, like what I'm going to be writing about here. Kung Fu Panda, though geeky isn't necessarily within the sphere of interest to that demographic, but I digress.

So, Kung Fu Panda 2. The villain is a peacock, that should tell you something about what Dreamworks was going for there. The first movie, as you'll remember, takes the viewer on an adventure right along with the main character Po the Panda as he discovers his destiny as he becomes The Dragon Warrior.

In the second installment of the series Po is feeling pretty good about his role as Dragon Warrior and is more than up the challenge when Master Shifu sends Po and the Five out on a new mission. Unbeknownst to either of them Po was about to encounter a familiar (but not) symbol on the armor of the villains. Seeing the symbol triggers a series of vivid memories in Po; this happens throughout the movie as he continues to see the symbol at random intervals.

Several things are discovered throughout the movie: Po's mysterious past, how he came to be the son of a goose and what happened to his family and why there aren't any other Pandas.

Shen, the Peacock villain, is an albino...so right from the start he's got issues. I mean...seriously, the dude has an inferiority complex the size of the Pacific Ocean. It's this inferiority complex that causes him to create the first cannon, presumably the first in the world. His goal is to use this technology to take over all of China and within that action to destroy Kung Fu. And as a movie for children certain holes in the plot are simply overlooked, thus I will not exploit them here...it's not Citizen Kane, people.

Overall, Kung Fu Panda 2 is a very enjoyable movie with several really touching moments. The pacing is excellent, with a run time of exactly 90 minutes it never feels rushed. The connection between the main characters continues to grow, despite the fact that the members of the Furious Five, aside from Tigress, play a much smaller role in the movie. But in every fight scene Po is constantly using tactics and fighting styles that incorporate each of the members, showing the value of the team as a whole.

It's a fun movie for child and adult a like. I definitely recommend checking it out!

For now, I shall leave you with this last notion: go check out my stuff on 8daysageek.com, you'll enjoy it, I promise!

TB (JQ)