Review: Thor

As I mentioned at the end of my review for X-Men: First Class, that watching Thor on Blu-Ray would be really my first time watching it. I was right. I saw this opening weekend in 3D and aside from the feeling I didn't get a choice at the theatre to see it in 2D I am glad I saw it now. The 3D in the film I felt didn't enhance the film it actually took away from it. I had to focus on the people coming out from the screen and then miss a lot of the great visuals in the film that lay far back. 

I rarely if ever read comics as a kid and yet I am completely loving these comic book films. I didn't know anything about the mythos of Thor and every time his home of Asgard was mentioned, I kept thinking of the grey aliens from Stargate and their own story that I kept waiting for the Richard Dean Anderson to show up with his Thor. Of course unlike X-Men, Thor is one of the other heroes to be featured in the upcoming Avengers in 2012. The feature on the Blu-Ray about the Avengers didn't really have me begging for more as opposed to why have that feature on the disc. It really didn't give me more information or teased me it mocked the viewers. We got more of a tease and then some at the end of Captain America. Which to be honest  that was the only good thing about that film.  I only watched one other special feature so far and that was from Asgard to Earth and the work the crews did to make the visuals was stunning. Which supports my case that 3D ruined it the first time around.

I liked the balance of humor in the film and sometimes it was a bit cliched like Thor getting hit by Natalie Portman for the second time while driving or backing up for that matter. Also, how Stan Lee was featured for that brief few seconds trying to to pull Thor's hammer from the ground with his pickup truck was a bit thrill. There was one moment in the film that I felt left me creeped out and it wasn't meant to be that way, but it just didn't come across well and that was close to the end with Thor and his mother. When Thor walked past his mother she watched as he went away and she had a look in eyes and face that made me think she had more than just motherly feelings for her son. I love Rene Russo and I saw the interview she did promoting the film on Jay Leno and how she as a person admired how handsome Chris Hemsworth is and had to remember she was playing his mother. Apparently, she forgot that in that scene.

I still hold X-Men: First Class as the shining light and top of the ladder for the best comic book movie from this summer and Thor would come in second. I do recommend this for anyone wanting a good action movie mixed with the right amount of humor. Like I said I didn't know anything about Thor and enjoyed it. Another plus for Thor in my book is that the Blu-Ray played without issue.

Review: X-Men: First Class

I was excited to see that this was the first summer hit to be released on Blu-ray. To me this was the best comic book film out of all four this summer and the second to be released over the summer in theatres.

My primary rant about the movie is primarily about the issues I ran into trying to watch the movie on my Blu-Ray player. I have heard and read that the Samsung Blu-ray players have problems with some discs. I was afraid after messing with the player and trying to update it Friday night that I would have to return the Blu-ray copy and get it on DVD. Needless to say I did give up. The issue was that it took longer than normal for the Blu-ray disc to load and when it did I would get to the title menu without any options to play the movie or go to the special features. After being fed up late Friday night into early Saturday morning ( even after having contacted Samsung's online chat help) I went to bed. The player wouldn't load an update that it needed and for some reason I wasn't having luck burning a CD with the update correctly. So I was ready to take the movie back to the store. I even read on Amazon.com that other people who owns a Samsung Blu-ray player was having difficulties.

The following day I went to show my wife the problem of what I happening with the disc. The disc still loaded slowly to the menu and surprisingly the menu options showed up and I could watch the movie. I haven't had the problem since aside from being the longest disc to load.

I really don't have a lot of negative things to say about X-Men: First Class as a movie. I like the flow of the film and the story line. I did notice some continuity gaps in the movie from the previous X-men films. Most of the movie's fans will know what I am talking about that it doesn't fit correctly with established cannon from the other films. SPOILER ALERT!!! (Example, Professor X was bald and walking when he saved the mutant children from 3-mile Island at the end of Wolverine and Prof X has full hair and is in a wheel chair and has a full head of hair at the end of First Class and Emma Frost was among the rescued and was much younger in Wolverine than she was in First Class and was not a part of the school since it just started in First Class).

Although, I read that this is a reboot of the films and doesn't need to fit into what is supposed to come after. Which is alright if that is what the film makers want to do. I mean rebooting is the trend now. However, on the opposite side of the coin is that there is going to be a sequel to the Wolverine prequel that kind of mucks up that explanation. So hopefully there will be First Class 2 to explain and cover up some of the gaps.

The only real disappointment I have is the fact that the other three comic book films didn't live up to the expectations I had. I did see Thor before X-Men: First Class and I was blown away by it and I think I held that expectation against Green Latern and Captain America. Although, I will review Thor next after I watch it for what I will consider the first time. I saw Thor in 3D and I think that took away from the movie.