Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Aren’t we feeling like the youngsters? Haha! It seems Jigsaw was given up and Les Affames was also given up for this month’s movie at the theatres and I ended up heading out to see Thor: Ragnarok with my friend. I’ve mostly been on track with the MCU films with a few exceptions like Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

Let’s check it out!

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Director: Taika Waititi

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins

Imprisoned, the mighty Thor finds himself in a lethal gladiatorial contest against the Hulk, his former ally. Thor must fight for survival and race against time to prevent the all-powerful Hela from destroying his home and the Asgardian civilization. – IMDB

The MCU timeline has only gone through 2 years since the last we’ve seen Thor however, the previous movie, Thor: The Dark World has been four years. It is perhaps one of the first Marvel movies that I’ve gone in very blind. While Thor movies aren’t exactly very strong to the Marvel films, its always a fun time and its a very important factor of why I feel Marvel has been successful. Finding humor and blending it with a right amount of action helps form these characters and in Thor: Ragnarok, it is no different. The humor is fantastic especially with a lot of familiar faces and a few new ones. These blockbuster superhero movies have grown to be a norm to have incredibly long run times and it still is one of the criticisms I tend to have because it drags on in some parts however, Thor is also full of laugh out loud moments that it never falls flat for too long before it gets you immersed or simply having fun again.

One of the best things about Marvel is that it knows that the fun in the movie, particularly in a blockbuster superhero film is simplicity. Sure, it takes a few turns here and there but everything works when its straightforward. There’s an issue then a dilemma then the superhero hits a snag that he or she needs to come back from and figure out a saving the planet or world or city solution. Nothing wrong with a little formula when you can get the tone right and the characters to be charming and engaging to watch. Thor: Ragnarok does all of that right and part it goes to having those engaging characters. Thor is always a joy to watch and with Loki being there as well, its always a fun time to watch their brotherly bickering even as they mock each other on their predictable characters. Being self aware is so important sometimes and that is the charm of it all.

With that said, aside from Thor and Loki that Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston are so fantastic as, the other characters all have their parts. Familiar faces go to Anthony Hopkins as Odin and Idris Elba as Heimdall. Making an appearance here and some very odd funny moments is The Hulk and of course, his human counterpart, Mark Ruffalo. All delivering on their roles very well. However, its great to see some other faces here as we learn a little more about Thor and Asgard’s history and of course the little sidetrack they make into The Grandmaster’s wastelands. The Grandmaster is played by Jeff Goldblum. Its been so long since I’ve seen Goldblum in anything but he takes on The Grandmaster with so much character in the most eccentric way. The awkward moments were the centre of a lot of the comedy here. A little younger in the cast was Tessa Thompson joining into the cast as Valkyrie who was a very different type of role than what she’s done in the past and I mean it in the best way. She’s a bad-ass lady and can definitely carry her own.

Its impossible to get through superhero movies without a mention of the villain. Except, Marvel movies have the fault of making incompetent villains who lack depth. Point exactly is that I can’t remember for the life of me what the name of the villain in The Dark World is. I think it starts with a “M” but all I remember was that he wasn’t really key to anything. Thor: Ragnarok is a little better mostly because Hella is the sister of Thor. She’s the secret of Asgard when Odin was much more ruthless. Nothing like sibling rivalry to get things heated up. Hella is played by Cate Blanchett and while a lot of her scenes were truly just amplifying how incredibly powerful she is, leaving it a little empty, its still Cate Blanchett and she is a fantastic actress that adds a little something to the role. Now, I’d be lying if her get-up didn’t remind me a little of Maleficent however, Hella is a dangerous villain all on her own, especially with a right hand man played by Karl Urban who never quite gets the depth in his character.

Overall, I have my criticisms about this movie but they feel a little like I’m nitpicking because Thor: Ragnarok is downright fun and packed with some cool action and awkward humor. Its villain is more competent and its humor is spot on and the characters are versatile and awesome. Thor: Ragnarok has its little issues and a lengthy runtime but it is my favorite Thor movie so far.

Have you seen Thor: Ragnarok?
Talking about lists, I’m definitely thinking of putting together a list of best to worst for the Marvel movies. Good idea?

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

I’m not going to lie..I almost forgot about this Snow White adaptation that I had to write up.  I saw it so long ago as I’m writing this that I can’t even remember it all that much.  Well, it wasn’t that long, maybe a month or so.  Regardless, my final Snow White adaptation that I’m writing up and I’ll get the baking part done and we’re on our way to the next movie on the Disney Classics list, Pinocchio. That one is easy because there is no available adaptations for me to watch.  If you have any to suggest, or anything loosely based on it, I’d give it a go to. Not to mention baking for that one is going to be crazily hard.  Anyways, one thing at a time. Let’s finish this Snow White business with Snow White and the Huntsman.  I wasn’t excited to watch it, had low expectations.  Now you know where I stand before I fired up this one.

Let’s check it out!

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

Director: Rupert Sanders

Cast: Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Sam Claflin, Sam Spruell, Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, Eddie Marsan, Toby Jones, Brian Gleeson

In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen. – IMDB

The journey of watching Snow White adaptations has been a long one.  There is no doubt that Snow White is one of those very frequently adapted story plots that seem to always be a good way to go.  Whether the movies themselves are of what quality, well, that changes.  Snow White and the Huntsman is one that I mentioned before where I didn’t have a lot of expectations. For one, I’m really not a huge fan of Kristen Stewart and while I love seeing Chris Hemsworth and his handsome body, I’ve learned to also not watch anything in hopes of seeing them take their clothes off.  I really don’t know to say it any other way.  I did that for Clash of the Titans (remake) and it was disappointing along with the fact that it was a terrible movie.  But, that is for another post (which will never happen probably because I refuse to put myself through it again). Except, I like Disney Princesses and while Snow White isn’t my favorite one, there has been okay adaptations of it in some unexpected entertaining pieces and even though its hard to believe but the hopeful part of this is Charlize Theron as the Evil Stepmother.

I ramble a lot when I don’t know how to word my reviews.  I realize that.  I guess the easiest way is to start with what was good. Snow White and the Huntsman is not a great film.  Its a tad boring, a little pointless but there are some good parts.  Its doesn’t really make the film one I’d sit down to watch again which is why I’m writing this on a very vague memory because it simply is forgettable. The first good part is the dark take on the Snow White tale.  The harsh evil from the Stepmother, the dangers and dark environment, the black magic in the air, just how the movie is a lot darker in nature.  Second, it makes Snow White into a warrior, someone who will fight, and not the weak princess cleaning up after the dwarves and waiting for her Prince to save her.  Honestly, the recent take of making out the princesses to be stronger in nature is one I’m enjoying a lot. Even if its Miss Stewart playing the role.  We will discuss her a little later. Three, the dwarves are always chosen and played with such character.  The same goes for here especially when we have some unexpected recognized actors here.  Four, it has to be the outstanding role of The Evil Queen played by Charlize Theron.  She just takes command of her role and every scene she is in make it so much more enjoyable.  Five, the visuals are pretty in this one.  There’s dark tones as I mentioned in point 1 and there are some bright parts of it as well.  The CGI is done very nicely and makes it feel that much more like we are in a fantasy/fictional land.

 That’s a fair bit of positive but you know what. The cons of Snow White and the Huntsman far outweighs those five points above.  For one, the movie was way too long.  It was over 2 hours long.  That is absolutely crazy.  That’s because it had a ton of really pointless scenes.  I felt like it was all added for dramatic value.  Except this leads to my second thing that I didn’t like: Kristen Stewart.  Look, I know its horrible to be ragging on Kristen Stewart and to be honest, it seems she’s gotten better but this was her right out of the Twilight series and her face does not make me feel anything.  Its not happy, always sad, maybe constipated and her as a tough girl doesn’t quite make me feel convinced.  As I watched this, I did think of one thing: how her career might be like Channing Tatum where she was pegged for certain roles and one day, she’ll find that role and break out of her shell and be a better actress.  I’m trying to be positive here.  Oh and I have to hate on Kristen Stewart just a little.  She got to liplock with Chris Hemsworth!

I guess what it all comes down to is that the sum of the positives can’t even outweigh that of the negatives.  Long, boring, convoluted, got lost in itself and I just couldn’t get into it or feel connected to any of the characters.   Sure, the premise was good, the take of this classic tale was good in all its dark glory but it just doesn’t seem to be able to pull itself out of its own mess.  Charlize Theron couldn’t do it.  Chris Hemsworth, huntsman and narrator, didn’t even have the chance.  Snow White and the Huntsman has the right intentions but with a bad script and messy execution, it falls short of what it could be.

Have you seen Snow White and the Huntsman? 

My 15 Anticipated Movies in 2015!

I’m not one to make a ton of lists on here.  I have them on and off when I feel the desire for it.  In fact, it all comes down to how I’m a really indecisive person and making choices are really difficult.  I like to give everything chances, even if they don’t quite appeal to me, even if I know that I won’t like it.  Who knows, right? I’m all for something being a pleasant surprise. Every year I see a bunch of these most anticipated movie lists go up and I always want to do one.  I’m sure the 2013 and 2014 one is buried in my drafts somewhere.

One of my personal goals (that I didn’t talk about) is not procrastinating in 2015 (and forever, if at all possible). So, here it is! I doubt I’ll get to see all of these.  I usually get about 12 theatre visits a year or I try for once a month.  We’ll see how this year goes 😉

I’ll try to do this in order of release date according to the upcoming schedule on the Cinema Montreal site.

1. Blackhat (January 16)

Chris Hemsworth, Leehom Wang, Hong Kong and Cybercrime? Count me in!

2. Mortdecai (January 23)

Johnny Depp, what more can I say?
I haven’t actually watched the trailer because I don’t usually watch a lot of them But I love Johnny Depp’s acting.
He always is a highlight of even the not so good movies.

3. Jupiter Ascending (February 6)

I’ve been anticipating this movie since 2014 then it got pushed to 2015 release and still, I remain hopeful.
Channing, Mila, space-ish setting. That just screams the sort of movie I love.

4. In The Heart of the Sea (March 13 Update: Dec. 11)

Chris Hemsworth, Sea, and a classics adaptation: All works for me.
Now, just to read Moby Dick before this releases 😉

5. Cinderella (March 13)

Disney. Cinderella. Cate Blanchett. Hell Yeah! 🙂

6. Furious 7 (April 3)

I’m a HUGE Fast & Furious fan. No further reasons needed.
On a side note, I’m probably going to marathon the first 6 before I go see this one 🙂

7. Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1)

I’m a die hard Avengers fan but I have to admit that the Avengers have a really good thing going.
I love the humor, action and everything so I’m in!

8.  Tomorrowland (May 22)

Disney. Britt Robertson. The premise.  I love it all 🙂 This looks awesome!

9. Jurassic World (June 12)

Chris Pratt and Jurassic Park sequel! I love dinosaurs 🙂

10. Inside Out (June 19)

I have to admit I was skeptical about this one at first but its starting to grow on me.  Plus, Pixar rarely does wrong.
The premise of emotions and all sounds pretty cool!

11. Ant-Man (July 17)

This one is a last minute addition after I saw the trailer released two days ago.
Paul Rudd hasn’t never caught my eye before but Ant-Man trailer looks really fun.
Plus, I’m starting to never doubt what Marvel can come up with. So far they’ve had a pretty awesome run.

12. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (September 18)

No trailer for this one yet (at least I couldn’t find one). I loved Maze Runner in 2014. It was one of the better movie adaptations I’ve seen.
Dylan O’Brien is fantastic as Thomas.  I just finished reading Scorch Trials and the book review will go up soon.
As much as I’m anticipating this, I have a little reservation as to how excited I am because of how they set up the first one.

13. The Walk (October 2)

I walked past The Walk filming in Montreal near my work place. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in it.
And Robert Zemeckis has made a lot of movies that I like.

14. Spectre (November 6)

I’m not much of a Bond fan but after Skyfall, I’m extremely excited to see this! Daniel Craig is an awesome James Bond 🙂

15. The Good Dinosaur (November 25)

No trailer yet and I’m not even sure what this is about but Pixar, dinosaurs and the cuteness overload of the poster 🙂

Honorable mention (in no particular order): Terminator Genisys, Pitch Perfect 2, Minions, Pan, The Fantastic Four, The Hunger Games-Mockingjay Part 2, Star Wars: Episode VII, Kung Fu Panda 3, Mission Impossible 5, The Jungle Book

Slot 15 was the hardest one to choose because I was playing around with shifting Cinderella, Pan and even Mission Impossible 5 on and off the list so they could very well have replaced The Good Dinosaur. Even The Fantastic Four landed on the list for a brief moment during drafting but it just didn’t have the interest I felt for the rest of these.

That’s my *preliminary* list. What’s yours? What movie(s) do you anticipate in 2015?

Oscars 2014!

Wow! Two years in a row I watch this! Sometimes, I wonder why I do it since I saw 3 movies that was nominated through all the categories.  Shameful as I’m building a blog that getting more and more focused in that area.  I’m going to try harder this year, thats all I can promise!

Back to the biggest night of Hollywood! My boyfriend was finishing up a movie so I lost a bit of the red carpet action, still, I caught most of the outfits as I did watch the whole Oscars and even used commercial breaks to check out tweets! I have to say that I’m a huge fan of Ellen so I loved her quite a bit! I mean, she crashed Twitter with that crazily retweeted selfie? Did that actually happen? AND she ordered pizza, which was super hilarious! 🙂

Moving along…I did it last year and I’ll do it again!

My favorite dresses at the Oscars last night! (Top 5 because I couldn’t pick 3 *ahem*)

Cate Blanchette

Lupita Nyong’o

Sandra Bullock

Charlize Theron

Emma Watson

Cate Blanchett oozes elegance, at least to me, she’s the symbol of it.  No one quite does it like her! And I’m totally loving the blue shades on Lupita Nyong’o and Sandra Bullock along with the design, simple but so pretty 🙂 Charlize Theron was just stunning (especially when she was presenting next to Chris Hemsworth). And Emma Watson knows how to choose her clothes.  I’d love to mention Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence and Anna Kendrick’s dresses. They were super beautiful too!!

Last year I didn’t do the men but they were so handsome!

Matthew McConaughey

Chris Hemsworth

Will Smith

Bradley Cooper

Matthew McConaughey was totally charming in his suit. Chris Hemsworth was hot in his burgundy.  Will Smith was looking pretty good and Bradley Cooper surprisingly took my breath away in his suit 🙂

The best speeches of the night goes out to these two awesome people!

Matthew McConaughey’s speech was really meaningful and encouraging. He thanked his belief and faith, his family and his future self.  That blew my mind! This man was already awesome in my book and think he just went even higher!

Before Matthew McConaughey got his award, her award seemed like the absolute best.  It was completely heartfelt and so meaningful.  I mean reminding children from everywhere that their dreams are valid (paraphrasing her words, of course), is just beautiful!

Aside from actual on-spot live speeches, I feel the Governor Awards is worth a mention because I was totally happy about Angela Lansbury getting it.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks was so fun! She’s awesome! I was very happy to see this!

Aside from her, we have Angelina Jolie that I have to give a mention because I was never a huge fan of hers but her speech was very touching and she’s done some pretty awesome work.  Impressive, right?

Last thing I’m going to talk about is for the songs.  They were all pretty good performances, no? Frozen totally deserved it and Idina Menzel blew me away as always.  She has a monster voice! BUT, the show was hit off on a very positive note with Pharrell Williams performing Happy and dancing with some of the ladies. This right here:

My girl crush on Amy Adams just grew a little (okay okay, maybe a lot)! 🙂

I’ve held you all up too much now so I’ll stop here!

Did you watch the Oscars? Who was the best dressed? Which speech stole the night? Were there any surprise wins?

Thor:The Dark World (2013)

I’ve been saying to go see a movie in theatres for so long and finally, the other day (last Friday), my friends and I went to go see Thor: The Dark World.  Honestly, I think I was super hyped up about it mostly because of Table 9 Mutant at Cinema Parrot Disco’s adoration of Chris Hemsworth.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the first one so as much as the trailer looked fantastic, I still had a few reservations. Lets see how I actually felt!

Director: Alan Taylor

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Eccleston, Jaimie Alexander, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgard

Thousands of years ago (I think), the Dark Elves lead by Malekith wanted to purge the world into darkness.  Asgard’s leader then, the current King’s (Anthony Hopkins) grandfather destroyed the evil and sent the powerful source of energy,Aether to a hidden location so that no one could find it.  however Malekith and a few of his army survived and escaped, ready to be awaken when the Aether summoned them again.  Back to the present, its been 2 years since Thor (Chris Hemsworth) had left Jane (Natalie Portman).  While Jane waits for him, Thor has been trying to bring peace to the nine realms.  However, Jane and her assistant Darcy follows an anomaly and Jane ends up entering another space and find the Aether that enters her body. To protect her, Thor brings her back to Asgard and this leads to some serious consequences.  Thor has to make decisions to save Asgard, protect Jane and choose whether to trust Loki as he asks for his assistance.

I don’t think I revealed too much. I feel like I’m just basically recapping the trailers released.  Thor: The Dark World is a pretty awesome treat, at least in comparison to the first one.  I love Chris Hemsworth and goodness, its HOT! but doesn’t help that I thought Thor was not all that great and I was yawning a lot.  This one was really good.  It felt a bit long for just a little while but did pick itself up rather quickly afterwards.  Visually, Asgard is beautiful.  The costumes were beautiful and everything was done so nice.  The story was pretty solid and the characters were all fantastic.

I know many of you will give me crap but I loved Avengers but what I felt fell short was Loki as the bad guy.  So unconvincing.  Most of you thought he was fantastic, I didn’t.  Now, Loki in this one, so convincing.  I loved him to absolute bits as the gray area dude.  Is he bad? Is he good? Has he changed? And c’mon, that ending ruled.  Most of you that saw it (and I know all of you did, since my inbox had about 50+ reviews of that movie on the first 2 weeks or something if not more), so you know what I mean.  And then that final sequence, I was like OMG! *ahem* I’m all over the place but point is, I loved Loki.  Now,  I’m excited to see him more!

I’m not afraid to admit my girl crushes but Natalie Portman is not one of them.  Maybe I need watch Black Swan since I haven’t yet, but as Jane, she’s a bit meh. However, I seriously love Kat Dennings.  Everything I’ve seen her in makes me laugh out loud.  She’s fun to watch.  I probably should start watching 2 Broke Girls (or whatever its called). Okay, aside from them, how awesome is Rene Russo as the queen? She is pretty awesome even though her screen time isn’t that much.

On the terms of our main baddie, Malekith, played by  Christopher Eccleston. I really don’t have a lot of attachment to this character.  He wasn’t bad, ok? I’m going to get that straight.  I was pretty impressed with The Dark World in general.  It was fun, had lots of action and nice stuff to see and all the cast did a pretty decent job.  Plus, there was more Anthony Hopkins than in the previous one and I like him.  Malekith was alright.  I actually can’t remember much of him in the movie.  Is that a bad thing?

Overall, Thor: The Dark World was enjoyable and entertaining.  It had great action and the story was nice, maybe just a tad long but it picked itself up well.  Also, other than loving the very awesome Chris Hemsworth as Thor, I also really bought Loki’s role this time around.  I think it possibly had one of my favorite endings this year.  This was a pretty fun one and I’d definitely recommend it! 🙂

Which Thor do you like more: the first or this one? How much do you like Loki? What did you think of Malekith?

The Avengers (2012)

Last Saturday I went to go see The Avengers with a group of friends.  I don’t know much about superheroes other than by names.  I have no idea what their individual stories were and I even planned to watch a few superhero movies such as Ironman 1&2 and Thor (since I own it but hadn’t found time to watch it yet).  As usual, I ended up not having the time to do so but still I went, a bit of worry that I’d be lost.  Fortunately that did not happen and I found it amazing.

There has already been many reviews on The Avengers and many people probably already have a general idea of the plot.  I think that is part of the appeal of superhero productions.  The plot is always very simple but with some twists here and there.  There is a villain (or a group of them), some scheme goes down and the superhero(s) come in and save the day.  Straight forward!  There is a lot of fighting, a lot of explosions and a enjoyable adventure to watch.

With all the rapid developments in technology, the films that use a great amount of computer graphics are the steal a lot of our attention and this is especially applicable to superhero movies. The last few days, I’ve been watching Ironman 1&2 as a complement to The Avengers hype going on and just looking at the development of Ironman gear.  Not only in the gear, the costumes, the weapons, but especially Loki’s army was just so…WOW! (as lack of a better word).  I found the movie compelling at parts where we felt like we were in it and we wanted to do something, we felt like we were part of it.  I think that feature was worth a whole lot of applause (which the audience in my theatre gave at certain parts: cheering and clapping at certain parts).

Aside from that, they used really good actors.  The actors each had already been seen before in their current roles (except for one, The Hulk) and had already gained general acceptance of their portrayal. Ironman (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) all brought their A-game to this production.  In the aftermath, I watched both the Ironman and Thor to gain better perspective on what led up to this and why some characters did or said certain things.  My issue at the end of the movie was not with the Avengers themselves but rather with the villain, Loki (Tom Hiddleston).  I felt that he was not convincing as a villain and that some of his actions wasn’t justified, maybe it was also because to me, he did not feel “evil” enough.  I have changed perspective on that though.  I watched Thor shortly after and realized that his character was built to act the way he did and many of his actions did make sense afterwards.  The cast was booming as usual, with the Avengers led by the character, Nick Fury (Samual L Jackson).  I can never expect a bad movie from Samuel L. Jackson (even Snakes on a Plane didn’t suck because of him).

So to wrap this blog up (since its taken me a few days already), cast was fantastic, technology (computer graphics, etc) was innovative.  The movie itself was compelling.  It definitely was an amazing adventure to go take part in: I laughed at parts, I was startled, I cheered and clapped.

It was a great way to start off the summer blockbusters! Lets hope that the rest of the summer will be as awesome!