Film Friday

So I went to see "Thor" on Tuesday night for the $5 showings at Cinebarre. I would highly recommend seeing all of your films there on Tuesday nights. Not only is every show $5 they also serve some tasty food and the onscreen presentation is always top notch as well. They show first run movies and other then it not being stadium seating I have never had a bad experience there. Also paying just $5 for a movie makes it a lot more tolerable for me and I am for sure more forgiving in my reviews of them.

Which brings me to my topic at hand. I went to see Thor and I enjoyed it but I am not sure if I was enjoying it because I had only paid $5 or if it was actually a good quality movie. I have mentioned before that I like Kenneth Branagh as a director and he did a fine job in this as he always does. There were some absolutely beautiful shots of space and some amazing CGI work as well. So both his directing and the cinematographer did excellent work. But the script. Oh, the script. When I checked the credits I noticed that the writing credits for the movie had 8 names on it. That is right you heard me. EIGHT NAMES!! IT TOOK EIGHT PEOPLE TO TELL THIS STORY!!! I am incredulous. This is a 115 minute movie. I suppose I should be glad that it was over 90 minutes but I mean seriously eight people. These elite eight are as follows Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, and Don Payne with a screenplay credit. Then J. Michael Straczynski and Mark Protosevich with a story credit followed up by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby with a Comic Book credit. Now I am not sure how much of these peoples work even made it to the screen or even if this film was based on a graphic novel or was some sort of movie stand alone story. (I know who is who in the comic book world so please do not give me comments citing the importance of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.)

I just think it odd that any film needs to have this many screen writers. It has kind of been an unwritten rule for me that if a film has a lot of screenwriters it is usually not a good film. But that is a discussion best left for another time.

This is a picture of Thor in one of the Marvel Comics

This is a picture of Thor from the movie.

As you can see they used the comic as a guideline for the costume which is pretty cool. I really did like the visuals of the movie but there were times that the dialogue really seemed awkward to me and a little forced. I thought there were some really good actors in the film and a good if not great director so the flaws really had to be with the script itself. That being said it seemed to rise above it script limitations and when Thor left Asgard and came to earth it really took off for me. Do not get me wrong. I enjoyed some of the stuff in Asgard but what went on when he came to earth was just far more interesting to me.

So I think if I had paid full price for this film it would only get 2 out of 4 for me. But seeing it for so cheap makes it be a 3 and a half easy. It is just a plain fun movie. You might not enjoy it as much if you are not a comic nerd but if you are it is a fun time. I say take next Tuesday and check it out.

T is for Tuesday

Today is Tuesday, Tuesday!! It is the day before hump day and the day after the dreaded Monday. I think it is really kind of an unsung day. We are not at the middle of the week and it isn't the first day of the week so most of us have recovered from the weekends festivities and the Monday hangover has subsided. I bet more actual work gets done on a Tuesday then on any other day of the week. Now, granted, I have no real data to back up that claim. But when have I ever let something like that stop me? That is right I never have. My gut is telling me that Tuesday is the most productive work day of the week and I am sticking with my gut. I am so confident of this in fact that I am not going to bother even looking up evidence to back up my claim. I know I don't need to.

T is also for Thor because the premier of the new movie is in three days. I normally would not really care about yet another comic being made into a movie but what interests me is that this film is being directed by Kenneth Branagh. I realize that some may disagree but I think having Branagh as a director gives real weight to this movie. I know that is has been a while since he has directed anything but I absolutely love what he did with Henry V. I also really liked his version of Frankenstein, So, with that being said, I have reservations because I have no idea what the story is like or anything like that for the film but I like the director and I am looking forward to seeing what it looks like and how it translates to the screen.



Have a good day folks. I hope you are enjoying the ride and remember rich or poor, powerful or weak, it is all the same. None of us are getting out of here alive. So lets just enjoy the journey okay.