Thor 2 spoiler free review

Took the family to see Thor this weekend and had a blast. My 9 and 12 year old love Thor because he is so pretty and when I made it known that I was going, they made it known that I wasn't going without them.

Script- Just trust them, the bad guys are trying to destroy the world or worlds. The how is very complicated science-magic. So, just go with it and have fun. It is a popcorn movie to be sure. Don't try to understand it. I said, STOP!

Acting- The acting was great, I mean you have serious hard hitting actors in this movie and that wasn't going to be a problem. Natalie Portman has way more chemistry with Thor than she did Vader. I just wondered if she told Thor that she wasn't at the battle of New York because she was having another man's baby at the time. I am sure it will come out in the sequel. Also a remarkable performance was put in by Kat Denning's boobs.

Overall- A fun popcorn movie. It wasn't The Avengers and I think it was better than the first Thor. The character is changing and becoming more heroic. They are writing him with a bit of depth. I would list it as fun for the whole family. Marvel has another winner here. Will DC ever respond.

Superhero Sequels

This past weekend, Spiderman 2 was on and I stopped in to watch it.  This is my all time favorite superhero movie.  It got me to thinking that a lot of other franchises seem to falter in the sequel.  I looked at Spiderman 2 and found where it was different than most superhero movies.

The first movie of any franchise is dedicated to the character's origin.  Spiderman was bitten by a spider, batman was scared by a bat, and superman was super.  Through the revelation of the origin, the character develops depth as we see what events in that characters life helped shape them. 

In contrast, the sequel generally ignores the hero for a large part of the movie and focuses on the creation of a villian.   I don't think anyone would argue that The Dark Knight was actually a joker movie.  This is obviously not the death knell for a movie in and of itself.  Spiderman 2 has a villian introced and works fine.  Why Spiderman 2 is better than The Dark Knight in my book is that the Spiderman movie is still about Spiderman.  The character is still developing and growing.  Batman emerges full Batman and is giving a cursory love story, but does not develop.

A second issue is the multiple villian angle.  Screen writers are under the illusion that the arch nemesis is the only villian that can carry a movie on their own.  Their solution is to put multiple villians in the same story.  Now, the hero is giving up screen time to two villian's origin stories.  The story feels rushed as you bring all these characters together.  The 1990's Batman films are a shining example.  Heck, Batman and Robin was focusing on two villians and their origins, while focusing on the origin of a new hero and incorporating in the two existing heroes.  This is done in 125min.

Superhero movies are as much about the secret identities as they are bout the hero personas.  As much as you love what the mask does, it is the person behind it that pulls the audience in.  Spiderman 2 realizes that and actually has Spidey remove his mask several times.  It hammers it home on the train as someone says, "He is only a kid."  The movie never lets you forget that Spiderman is Peter Parker. 

It is amazing that a movie that did everything right, would ultimately get everything wrong the next time around.  I think Iron Man 2 was able to learn these lessons and does a pretty good job implementing them.  Fantastic Four fails partly because the characters are the mask, it is hard to identify with them. 

Waht is your favorite comic book movie?  Why