This and That: Quick Thoughts on two Marvel Movies

Just some quick thoughts on Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winder Soldier, as I managed to finally watch them on Blu Ray during the bank holiday morning.

Firstly Thor. I enjoyed this quite a lot actually. There was some genuine good humour in it at points and the action scenes were fun and snappy. Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth continue to have pretty decent chemistry and Portman continues to be one of my favourite actors. It’s a shame she has Episode II really dragging down her average, but hey ho.

It was good to see Chris O’Dowd get a quick cameo and he delivered his dialogue with aplomb. I wouldn’t mind seeing him in the third one, which you know is coming. Tom Hiddlston enters another assured performance as Loki. His character is both charming and repulsive, sometimes at different points in the same scene and he really is the driving force in The Thor movies.

Anthony Hopkins is serviceable, but you don’t sense he really gives a flying fridge about the source material and has seemingly just gone into it thinking “So I’m playing benevolent old guy then? How many 0’s are on the cheque? Meh, alright. I’m not doing much that week anyway. The Cricket Season doesn’t start for a few months; I might as well do something to keep myself busy”

All in all, I thought this was an enjoyable experience and the ending made me intrigued to see where they go with the story. The humour in Thor really does it for me, perhaps more than any of the other Marvel movies. I actually found this more funny overall than Iron Man 3, despite that film having an excellent comic turn from a certain actor (I won’t spoil it in case people haven’t seen it). The side characters, Broke Girl and some British doofus scientist, contribute quite a few good lines and Hemsworth himself has remarkable comic timing. I personally can never get enough of the whole “fish out of water” stuff with Thor interacting with the human world. It was by far the funniest bit of the first one and there’s a couple of quick gags in this film as well.

Overall, I’d give it 7 out of 10. Good film that I’d watch again.

 

As for Captain America, I enjoyed this one slightly more than Thor. Chris Evans continues to be a sympathetic and likeable lead. His version of the character as an understated coolness about him that really endears him to the viewer. He really gets to flex his acting muscles at times in this one as well, especially after making a big discovery part way through the film.

Scarlett Johansson returns as Black Widow and retains the snarky charm that the character is known for. We get to see her and Evans play off each other for most of the movie and it’s generally good stuff. There’s an ongoing gag where she’s trying to set Captain America up with people who work in The Shield Office and it works well for what it is.

I found some of the humour a bit flat in this one and found Thor’s jokes to hit the mark a bit better, but it’s not like the film is terribly unfunny. The humour just doesn’t seem to hit that often for me but I do appreciate the effort.

This is quite along movie and clocks in at over two hours. I did feel at times that maybe the movie dragged ever so slightly, but then again it is telling quite a complex and meaty story, so the run time is forgivable.

The action and fight scenes are absolutely top notch and one of the highlights of the film. There’s an amazing fight scene between Captain America and a world renowned Mixed Martial Arts that had be marking out big time. I won’t say who it is, as I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s an awesome cameo that probably added a whole point to the movie for me.

The character of Nick Fury returns, being played once again by Sam Jackson playing Sam Jackson, and it works about as well as it has in the past. The character really fails to entice and excite me though. Anthony Mackie as The Falcon though is an excellent bit of casting. He delivers his lines with an almost childlike zeal and he’s by far one of the best things in the film.

Overall, I think this is one of the best solo character Marvel Movies so far and I’ll happily give it 8 out of 10. When X-Men comes out on DVD, I’ll make sure to review that as well. I might give Amazing Spiderman 2 a miss though, as it doesn’t sound like something I’d like and I wasn’t a massive fan of the first one, Emma Stone aside (Growl)

Peace Out