Thor Movie Review

The movie Thor is an adaptation of the Thor Comics by Marvel, and it exists in the same world as the Iron Man series, Captain America, and The Avengers.  This movie serves as the introduction of Thor and the Asgardians including Loki, and Odin.  I really like the fact that Thor has to find a reason bigger than his own ego to regain his power.

What I didn't like about this movie and the comic series was that while the asgardians take the name and some of the characteristics of the Norse gods there are also some issues that make this impossible.  Things that very old Norse stories speak of are told as current events, and some of the relationships are not correct.  If you ignore that the movie is very good.

In the movie Thor is presented as a very powerful warrior who has arrogance and ego to match his strength.  When the frost giants attempt to retrieve their most powerful weapon from Asgard Thor is enraged and goes to their home to pick a fight, nearly restarting the war between Asgard and the frost giants.  As punishment Odin strips his son of his hammer and his strength and banishes both him and the hammer to earth.  Thor can regain his power, but only if he can shed his ego, and learn to be worthy of his power.  On earth Thor runs into(literally) a young scientist named Jane Foster who is studying wormholes, which is the true form of the bifrost used to transport him to his exile.  While Thor attempts to regain his power, and make Jane his girlfriend, on earth Odin Slips into a coma when Thor's brother Loki discovers that he is really a small frost giant that Odin stole.  Being Odin's non-exiled son Loki takes power and sends a fire automaton to kill Thor in exile.  This, combined with his humbling experience on earth, allows Thor to finally become worthy of his power by nearly getting killed defending a town from the rampaging automaton.

This movie will appeal to anyone who likes action adventure, Superhero and comic fans, Science Fiction fans, and Fantasy fans.  It is an  easy move to watch and the special effects are great.  Except for the violence this would be a great movie for anyone.  As it is anyone but very small children should enjoy it.

This movie can be found at www.amazon.com as a disk or for streaming rental or purchase.  If you have Prime it is available as a free video right now.  It is also available as an instant stream on www.netflix.com.

Iron Man Movie Review

This movie is very entertaining to watch.  At the beginning of the movie Tony Stark is not a very likable character.  He is a rich arrogant playboy with no real regard for anybody or anything.  He is in the business of designing and selling weapons and he doesn't really care about what they do to people.  I really like the fact that Tony allows his experiences transform him into a better person instead of making him even more mercenary and uncaring.  By the end of the movie he is still a rich arrogant playboy, but he is one that cares and has become an irreverent hero.

Since this movie came from comic books the science can be a little iffy.  It is never really explained exactly what an arc reactor(the power source for his super suit) is besides an incredibly powerful small electrical generator.  Despite this Tony goes about creating his inventions in a scientific manor, and it is a good science fiction film in that way.

In this movie Tony is captured by a group of terrorists when he is on a trip to a war torn area where his weapons are sold and used.  Tony is injured by one of his own weapons and has a piece of metal seeking his heart that is only kept at bay by an electromagnet.  The terrorists have him and another captive, named Yinsin, working to make them weapons and Tony and his companion use this to construct an arc reactor to keep tony's heart intact, and power a suit of powerful armor Tony is building.  In the end Tony escapes with the armor, but only by Yinsin sacrificing his life.  When he gets back Tony decides to stop making weapons for sale and to refine his armor concept so that he can help people, and perhaps put some of his ghosts to rest.  It turns out that his ambush was no accident however, and he ends up having to fight one of his managers named Obadiah Stane.  Stane arranged the ambush and was selling weapons to the terrorists behind Tony's back.  He has salvaged and upgraded Tony's original suit and stolen Tony's latest arc reactor to power it.  Tony must use his first reactor which has a lower capacity to battle Stane, but wins by knowing the limits of his original design better than his opponent.

This is a good action adventure movie that Comic Geeks, Science Fiction Fans, and anyone who loves a good adventure will enjoy.  The movie is pg 13 and has a lot of violence so very young children may be a bad idea depending on the child, but they will likely enjoy it if it will not scare them.

This movie can be found at www.amazon.com for purchase on disk or as a stream.