I’ll say this part right now, to me, the movie was very entertaining. I thought the actor playing Thor, Chris Hemsworth did a great job portraying the God of Thunder. I’ve hit an issue over the last few years watching movies and TV shows where I feel some actors/actresses can’t act. (I’ll use this time to refer to such actors as Will Ferrell where in every movie I see him playing the exact same role, but alternate a few things about him) So it’s a little refreshing to see someone toss around, oh what are those things called? Emotions?

The addition of Natalie Portman was a great round of eye candy. Another person I thought player her role as Jane Foster very well. I remember it was just about a decade ago that I first saw her on the big screen back when she was Padmé and I thought, “She is cute, but not that great of an actress.” I feel that over the decade she is starting to be a good actress. I’ll be honest, I really haven’t seen much of her other work since Star Wars, so it’s not like I have watched her evolve from point A to B. I just have Star Wars, 1999 and Thor, 2011 to compare her skills. Hopefully she would have gotten better over that time, right? Shame I can’t say the same for Will Farrell.

Hopefully I don’t really need to get into much detail over Odin on the big screen. I mean, it’s Anthony Hopkins for crying out loud. That’s like casting Bruce Willis in a movie. You tell the guy to go stand there, ask if he knows his lines and no matter what his response is, you get a golden performance. I had a joke about how the man is a god, but figured now wasn’t the time.

Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, was an interesting choice. I really haven’t seen him in other movies but felt he did an amazing job playing the God of Mischief (as some know him). We had a small disagreement after the movie with Loki and that was one of my friends felt he wouldn’t have tried to fight Thor head-on like he did in the end of the movie. (I would have said spoiler alert, but really, if you can’t guess that there would be confrontation between Thor and Loki, you shouldn’t watch movies). My argument was, since the movie itself was a coming-of-age story for Thor, showing his growth from immaturity to maturity. Then the same could be said in terms of Loki. So given all the circumstances that lead up to that scene, perhaps Loki felt he could actually defeat his brother. Now in Avengers, if we see Loki attempting to fight Thor in the same manner, then I’ll jump ships and agree with my friend, but for now, I feel it was both Hollywood wanting to create a more dramatic scene but also believable in the sense that Loki could have made a poor judgement call in the heat of the moment.

So with that being said, if you have any enjoyment for superhero movies, be it Marvel or DC. I would say go watch Thor. I found it very entertaining. It had some great fight scenes, fantastic special effects, Natalie Portman & Kat Dennings (She played Darcy Lewis, one of Jane Foster’s friends), just an all around fun movie to view with your other superhero loving friends. I don’t know if they have a non-3D option since my movie theater only had it in 3D. They didn’t have a great deal of “3D effects” the I felt required me wearing some glasses in addition to my glasses for a little over two hours. Really the only 3D effect they had were when they tried to emphasize things in the background or foreground a little more than standard movie screen can portray. Blasted, watching 3D movies on top of a 2D plane!

Also, like all the other Marvel movies, yes there is a scene after the credits. As we sat in our seats I pulled out my phone to check IMDB and see if Samual L. Jackson was in the movie or not. Once I saw he was on the actors list, I knew they had a scene at the end since during the movie Nick Fury never showed up.

I went to the midnight showing of the newest comic book inspired movie The Incredible Hulk. One thing I’ve been hearing all week is how bad the first movie was, and how nobody cared about this film – and this was reflected by the half empty midnight showing. Its regrettable, because the movie was pretty much what I wanted from a Hulk movie. What do I want? Smashing. Lots of things smashed.

They definitely are going with a movie continuity based more off The Ultimates comic series. I suspected as much when Nick Fury after the credits of Iron Man was portrayed as black. Also, Banner was working on the Super Soldier project while transformed and not a gamma bomb. Im sure many more nuances exist I didnt catch. It’s a good series – a great series even. Their take on Galactus as a hive mind species in Ultimate Galactus. The comic series is extensive enough to provide material for a ton of movies.

The obvious tie in to Iron Man, and the already announced Thor, Captain America, and Avengers movies really put pressure on this film to be really good. I feel like a weak link in these movies could drag down the amazing potential these movies have to be epic. Iron Man set the bar really high – I was reluctant to make a statement like ‘Best Comic Movie Ever’, but I can say pretty comfortably it was my favorite. The Hulk, however, holds its own, and might even be better the 2nd time around. I’ll have to make the call when both are out on Blu-ray… and I get a PS3. Until then, Im giving the Hulk 4 1/2 ripped purple pants out of five.

Bottom Line: FORGET the last Hulk movie… this is a whole new Hulk. Better villain, better CGI, better pacing, better action. Whether you hated the last Hulk movie, or just thought it was bad, this one will not put the same tast in your mouth. NO poorly done daddy story… no Hulk jumping across states in something looking out of an IMAX theater.

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