Captain Marvel

Rating: 2/5

So Captain Marvel is here. I have never really followed the comic book character, as she never seemed terribly impactful on the Marvel Universe when I actually read comics. Still, I was hoping, based on a pretty good track record, that this would be another fun Marvel flick. I was also hoping it would be one in the eye for the internet troll brigade.

It does have fun in it, though it's a little hard to find at times. The humor mostly works, some story turns are interesting, and most of the effects (other than Agent "Uncanny Valley" Coulson) are decent. But overall ... I just didn't dig it.

Maybe it's because the titular Captain is not a particularly engaging or sympathetic character. She's a quippy smartass from the get-go, and she never really changes very much. Despite life-altering experiences, her life isn't really very altered. She went from being a hotshot fighter pilot to a hotshot space warrior. She lost her memories, but that doesn't seem terribly important to the plot, nor does it really inform her character very much.

So many opportunities for a deeper, more interesting movie existed here, but were abandoned. Characters had only sketches of motivation, and the most serious moral choice in the film (whether or not a mother with a child should risk her life, possibly leaving that child motherless) had a frustratingly unsatisfying resolution. The movie seemed afraid to make any hard choices, which is almost exactly the opposite of the recent years' storylines of the Marvel Comics character (as I understand them upon a brief wikipedial review).

Honestly, I struggle for anything to say about this movie, other than my primary impression was that I found myself waiting for it to be over rather than engaged or excited. I do not remember feeling this way about any other Marvel film, even the lower-tier second sequels to Iron Man and Thor.

Well ... maybe Thor 2.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Rating: 34/50 Stars

Superhero movies are getting awfully tired, but Marvel Studios will be damned if it doesn't roll em out while the rolling is good. Thor and Iron Man 2 were ... less than great, but Captain America is, at least somewhat, a return to form. It's no Iron Man, and it's not quite the equal of X-Men: First Class, it's still one of the better Marvel comics adaptations.

Well, it's no Spider-Man, either. And no X-Men. And, really, it's no X-Men 2 ... hmm.

Anybody who isn't familiar with the titular Captain will probably enjoy this movie a lot less than Iron Man, even before you take into account the fact that Chris Evans is no Robert Downey, Jr. Still, it manages to avoid the Origin > Crisis > Climax ladder that most superhero movies are so fond of, giving Cap a fairly touching origin (thanks mainly to a fine performance by Stanley Tucci as the brains behind the experiment that turns 90-pound weakling Steve Rogers into Chris Evans) and then, instead of hurling him directly into the fight against evil, thrusting him awkwardly into the role of a USO poster boy and War Bond shill.

Eventually, however, duty does call, in the form of a friend caught behind the lines and imprisoned by the villainous Hydra, led by the sinister Red Skull (Hugo Weaving, who chews the scenery like crazy, but what's a brother gonna do? He's a crazy Nazi scientist!)

Of course the Red Skull was the first person to go through the super-soldier treatment that created Cap, but the movie nearly unforgivably has Weaving utter variations of the line, "We are not so different, you and I!" Seriously, Hollywood, there should be an ordinance against that appearing in any screenplay, along with, "You fool! You'll kill us all!" and "You don't understand what you're dealing with!" -- both of which occur in this film as well, in various forms. (Note to self, deduct a few more stars.)

Still and all, CA:TfA is a fairly fun ride, though it suffers from a weak ending that really only serves to set up next year's The Avengers, which also has a trailer attached after the credits of this film.

Thor

Rating: Meh.

As comic book adaptations go, Thor is fairly middle of the road. About as good as X-Men 3, I suppose. Faint praise for a faintly praiseworthy film. Director Kenneth Branagh has taken the nearly 40-year-old Marvel Comics version of the god of thunder and done ... fairly well with such a screwy premise.

To its credit, the scenes in the otherworldly realms of Asgard and Jotunheim are pretty interesting, and some of the action in these sequences are exciting. Unfortunately, they are bogged down by some pretty hard-to-swallow dialog and a few strange moments where actors almost seem to break character intentionally.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth), in particular, goes from an angry, somewhat thick bruiser personality to a witty charmer seemingly at random. This is even more jarring once he is exiled to earth, stripped of his powers for being an idiot. In one scene, he is a boorish barbarian, shattering his mug and demanding more coffee. In another, he's a smiling, somewhat condescending superior being, explaining how science and magic are one in the same. And in another, he marches into a pet store and demands a horse, or a dog or cat large enough to ride. It's a very mixed bag.

Thor also suffers by shying away from the ugly aspects of its main character via a complete character reversal that seems to take place over about 48 hours. If humility and decency are this easy to pick up, it's hard to understand why Odin (Anthony Hopkins) didn't send his son downtown a long time ago.

Hemsworth does give a creditable performance as Thor, though, and Hopkins is surprisingly good as Odin, overcoming some seriously silly costume choices and dialogue to give his character great dignity. Tom Hiddleston, as Thor's brother god Loki, is also good, though he does become more cartoonish and generic as the film rolls into its third act.

In contrast, Natalie Portman, as Thor's love interest Jane Foster, is pretty weak. Portman can't shoulder all the blame here, though, as her character is almost completely superfluous to the plot. We are clearly meant to believe there is much more of a connection between Foster and Thor than is ever shown on screen. They make eyes at each other and share a kiss, but the movie earns no real emotion in that relationship. Stellan Skarsgaard, as Foster's mentor Dr. Erik Selvig, is considerably more interesting than Portman, and the part is better written.

Thor's fellow Asgardian adventurers, particularly Ray Stevenson as Vostagg, are entertaining, and could have used more screen time. Clark Gregg reprises his role as Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D., providing a touchstone with the other films in the Marvel franchise, having played the same character in Iron Man and its sequel. He's fine, in a somewhat unchallenging role.

We'll see Thor again, next year, in The Avengers, but it's hard to see how he will stand up next to the vastly more entertaining and nuanced character of Tony Stark/Ironman that Robert Downey, Jr. will be bringing to the table. Hemsworth may be fine, but the character of Thor is a bore.