As he announced in May, Ian Simmons of the Kicking the Seat podcast and YouTube channel has begun a one-year moratorium on watching new comic book-based movies and TV shows (with DC League of Super Pets as his one caveat to take his young son to his first movie). While he may not be leading his usual YouTube roundtables, he still invited and welcomed participants for the team of “Earth’s Mightiest Critics” to still get the good and bad words out there for Thor: Love and Thunder.
Read MoreFor their 71st episode, two Nordic film critics, hammered dads, and Guns 'N Roses-jamming school teachers Will Johnson and Don Shanahan go toe-to-toe with the gods and monsters of Thor: Love and Thunder. For the second Marvel Cinematic Universe movie in a row, our two hosts find themselves far apart. Expect different shouts of love and different shots of thunder in this rollicking episode.
Read MoreIf, from here on out, the Thor series is going to stay in Taika Waititi’s control, so be it. Let him own it and be all things Thor. Hemsworth’s natural charisma and self-deprecating personality, put on blast in Thor: Love and Thunder (buns and all) more than it’s ever been in that shiny armor, match the zany route Waititi has taken with this character. Going back to the bold spirit of Branagh’s mythic origins seems difficult, if not damn near impossible, where Waititi and company would be better off sticking with the fluffy cheese and not even trying. For better or worse, this is Thor now. Maybe at least, even in sideshow comedy mode, this character will finally have consistency.
Read MorePaired perfectly as a double-feature follow-up to this summer’s spacefaring Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok is a raucously rad roller coaster that shoots rainbows out of every digitally-rendered pore. Blasting with energetic pace in the complete opposite direction from the dreary and grayish Game of Thrones Lite tone of Thor: The Dark World, this new chapter is a cinematic box of Crayola crayons laced with dynamite.
Read MoreBut all of those lofty intentions will not be automatically transcendent for everyone. Let me say it like this as delicately as I can. The level of your Christian faith, or lack thereof, will formulate your reaction, appreciation, or acceptance of “Silence.” It is an agonizing personal test for an audience, just the same as it is for the characters on screen. This will either be a soul-rattling testament or maddening torture.
Read MoreNow in its third phase, Marvel continues to take C-level and D-list comic book characters and titles, breath cinematic life into them with top-notch talent in front of and behind the camera, and turn the obscure in newly minted household names and merchandising windfalls. "Doctor Strange" continues the studio's blueprint of Midas Touch success while jubilantly kicking down the door for magic and mysticism in the MCU. You may not know him yet, but Stephen Strange is a major player and huge addition to an already-loaded heroic panorama.
Read MoreRaising the stakes and swinging for the fences like a good film sequel should, Joss Whedon’s latest Marvel film pays off the studio’s Phase 2 initiative with both a new level of groundbreaking effort beyond the first peak three years ago and a continued dedication to the master blueprint of a grander big picture.
Read MoreSpeaking of poker, if "Iron Man 3" is a hefty full house and "Thor: The Dark World" is a handsome straight, then "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" is a straight flush. I will echo the early reviews coming in and say that this is arguably Marvel's best made film to date. The movie is a kinetically smart clash of political espionage set on a superhero action stage. There's not a wasted moment of non-importance and the twists and turns triple anything attempted by "Iron Man 3" or "Thor: The Dark World."
Read MoreThe popular trend lately (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) has been to create comic book movies that tone down the superpowers and focus on the realistic qualities and plausibility of human heroes capable of existing in our real world. Thor, unapologetically, does the absolute opposite. It's a grand, epic, and galaxy-bending display of gods among men. Never before has a superhero movie been so, well, super in its scope and size, yet still leaving room for a little dose of humanity.
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