Thor - pronounced Th-or

B (7.4)


From Iron Man with the exception of X-Men it seems like every Marvel film is doing a film within a film. The film is any one of the Avengers and within that is the Avengers staring these superheroes, coming in a year's time. And I really don't enjoy watching these films while thinking of the upcoming movie because I thought it was a tired and pointless marketing strategy  from Marvel with limited cameos and constant references of the Avengers.

Thor is one of the few films within a film released by Marvel along with Captain America and Iron Man. Chris Hemsworth plays Thor, a godlike son of a powerful god/leader of Asguard, Odin (Anthony Hopkins). When Thor and his group which includes his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) comes into Asguard's former planet runned by Frostblasts (yep, try laughing at that) they... um.... just destroy everyone on the planet. Odin banishes Thor to Earth thereby strips his powers and right to where he lands is a group of scientists led by Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). With his banishment, Loki becomes leader when Odin somewhat have health problems and Loki gave some power to the Frostblasts).

Thor is pretty much fun popcorn fare with a suprisingly exquisite direction from Kenneth Branagh whose usual flair is period and Shakespearean pieces. The visual effects are grandiose despite the fact that it's made from CGI and so has the art direction since the look of Asguard is so pure.

Chris Hemsworth is both charismatic and egotistic as the God of Thunder but Tom Heddleston as Loki such an interesting character because he's riddled with jealousy and anger towards Thor and Odin. Despite the fact that there's a lack of depth and underuse in their characters, Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman are wonderful. There's a cameo from another Avenger but I wasn't offended because it was there for a short second.

That said and there are some flaws that can be noticed. This includes the 3D which is great but is unnecessary to the whole film and makes the film look cheap. I like the Shakespearian overtones but it only exist in one world. I.e. the Asguard while on Earth, it doesn't feel special that would make Thor or any of the human characters effective to the story. I feel like if the human characters were away from Earth and are in Asguard, then we would become attached. But Asguard is not perfect. Not a single thing could be perfect when you have hammy dialogue spoken by Thor that can be so laughable. However on Earth, the dialogue feels so normal, it's inert. In conclusion, it's the changes that could've muddled the film.

Thankfully this movie doesn't takes itself too seriously given the amount of goofy humour especially from Jane Foster's assistant (Kat Dennings). But sometimes the jokes fall flat to its knees and ultimately becomes a distraction.

I really enjoyed the film based on a fair amount of escapism. IT has some flaws and before I watched the movie, I went with low expectations because I wasn't familiar with the comic books. This is a visceral state of comic book movie where it gradually follows or take mythology as their influence. This is better than the Iron Man series but is not on the level of the Spiderman trilogy. In Thor, it's on Norse mythology (and yes there is proof that there was literally a god named Thor.). This officially kicks off the summer of movie where it should kicks off for each first May release.

My Reaction to the 83rd Academy Awards

OK. The Oscars are over. After that, you should get a life.

And I was divided. Really divided.

The King's Speech won four Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor (it almost got the Big Five - Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay and Best Director). I congratulate them with their win. It is a perfect prediction for this years Oscars because as I said in the Best Picture blog, the Academy loves a feel-good movie even if my wishes wasn't fulfilled. SO anyway congratulations to them. Even if it meant that a Hollywood movie had not won that category for four years.

I was really happy that Inception had got the most Oscars with four for Visual Effects, Cinematography, Sound Editing and Mixing. Most of the technical awards. And The Social Network got three Oscars - Best Editing, Best Original Score for Nine Inch Nails duo Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and Best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin. And even though it didn't win any important category, Inception and The Social Network will be remembered as two of the greatest movies made in this century.

And I was also pleased that Natalie Portman won the only Oscar for Black Swan. Black Swan is a dark movie and even it is so conflicted, Portman deserved it. Everybody's a winner (except for 127 Hours, that's a shame)

Insert rant:

But the entire show is so EXCRUCIATING. Anne Hathaway and James Franco may be the youngest hosts to ever host an Oscar show, but they are the worst Oscar hosts ever!! It makes David Letterman hosting feel like Billy Crystal, it makes Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin look like Cheech & Chong.

I have completely lost faith with Hathaway and I don't know if playing Catwoman in the next Batman movie was the right choice by Christopher Nolan. Seriously James Franco cross dress as Marilyn Monroe while Hathaway makes fun of Australians. That is such a dick move. It reminds me of two guys sitting next to each other at a bar. One's drunk and the other remains sober. Hathaway acts drunk while Franco seems like he came out from Alcoholic Anomynous. That is such a dick move.

More than so, this is what I've been expecting from these two actors who have never experienced any hosting duties. They honestly could not take this seriously together and the chemistry is entirely charmless. Seriously the jokes are unfunny, the lines are unplayful and this is the moment I've been waiting for... Hathaway changing her wardrobe for EIGHT FUCKING TIMES! Hathaway bringing in a choir from the movie Waiting For Superman is somewhat a hush compensation for us if we don't enjoy until the very end. Watching Hathaway and Franco hosting the 83rd Academy Awards is like watching The Last Airbender where it doesn't have an ending and until its 127 minute there's a twist (M Night Shyalaman joke put here) but there's still no ending. Now I'm wishing Kanye would come in and interrupt them. It's also like watching The Tourist again and again.

I honestly don't get why the Academy is so obsessed with kids my age. I mean did the whole Academy go into a midlife crisis? Did they want them to grab ratings? Did the Academy want to trick them into seeing the hottest girl and guy in Hollywood hosting the biggest event of their lives? They're trying to grab a younger audience and that plan had epicly failed. Unfortunately no one 16 years younger or older to 25 is interested in good movies. Because they don't know what the fuck is a good movie. They're still playing their Call Of Duty: Black Ops, still watching the same Adam Sandler movie or Twilight movie and they will never watch classic movies like 2001: A Space Oddysey or Goodfellas.

They could've chose a comedian instead. None of them are comedians and the Academy would've gave Stephen Colbert or even Conan o Brien the rights to host it.

But the best thing about the show is a montage of The Social Network, Twilight, Toy Story 3 and Harry Potter mashuped to deliver a hilarious autotune

So my verdict is this: Everyone's a winner, but they wasted their time to the most hollow show on Earth

Nightmares of a chronic masterbating ballerina

Black Swan


A- (9.4)


There are two kinds of people in this world who see Black Swan. One of them is the ballerina flick gathering awards buzz for both Darren Arronofsky and Natalie Portman. And then there's that kind who quote:

Oh yeah. That ballerina flick with the lesbian scene with Portman and Mila Kunis. I like that!

That second kind would probably be immature about this flick because this movie had totally rocked my world.

Natalie Portman plays a ballerina named Nina Sayers who is elevating to the top of her professional level as she's about to play the White Swan and the Black Swan for the major play Swan Lake. The White Swan is timid and vulnerable she transform herself into the Black Swan where she's the opposite of the White. However Nina wants to make herself perfect for both roles as she is only pressuring herself to impress the perverted ballet director Tomas (Vincent Cassel) and her stage mother (Barbera Hershey). She is bullied by many of her colleagues of the ballet world because of what she is. Nina then encounters a free spirited newcomer Lily (a really hot Mila Kunis) where she's suspicious of her thinking that's she's aiming for both roles and because of that as she becomes mentally damaged.

Previously, Arronofsky had wanted to make this movie into a companion piece to a mixture of this and The Wrestler where it's a romance between the wrestler and the ballerina. If you have The Wrestler and this movie seperately, Arronofsky might have created a series of dark character studies where you wanted to kill yourself. This may be Arronofsky wanting to do a movie hat is simlar to David Lynch's Mullohand Drive or that movie meets Red Shoes another ballerina film that was generic at its time.

Black Swan is a character study of obviously the ballerina. This is Natalie Portman's most challenging role to date and proves that she's one of the greatest actresses of her generation. Nina Sayers is a conflicted character who's a self-loathing, ballerina damaging herself for her aims to be perfect and to impress people who she feels had let down especially her mother who still treats her like she's 12 year old. She fills herself with riddled jealousy and emotional breakdowns so she can get what she wanted. That is where you should understand her and the troubles she's facing. Portman puts in a powerful performance which lets her character go for a hell of a ride just lke Jodie Foster did with Silence Of The Lambs. She deserved all of the accolades that she had received and it's more likely that she may win her Oscar.

It's great to say that Arronofsky is a great director of actors since his supporting cast is also excellent especially Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis who play provocative players in the game of ballet. Cassel's character is very hard to like and Kunis plays Lily someone Sayers is envious of but they both make a charismatic impact on Sayers' wellbeing. Barbera Hershey is also very good here playing a stage mother who reminds me of Margeret White the overbearing mother from Carrie. But it's Winona Ryder who has a small role as a retiring dancer that steals her scenes to get Sayers out of her emotional level.

Black Swan is has jump-out-of-your-chair moments where it follows the various elements of psychological horror. That subgenre is the most effective out of horror and that is what Arronofsky has done. But be warned. Black Swan is not for the faint of heart if you can't handle moments of sexual pleasure (there's two masterbating scenes and a scene where Portman and Kunis has a lesbian scene) or shocking moments of Portman's well-being.

The choreography is dazzingly well staged as well as the score by Clint Mansell

Arronofsky has put in ambition, jealousy and some moody craftmanship in this masterpiece. Despite the fact that this is the surrealist study of a dancer's angst, the interesting part about this movie is the number of questions I'd been thinking about for the nature of this film and it seems that Arronofsky is trying to send a hint to the audience. Does he want to explore the world of near failures (such as Mickey Rourke from The Wrestler and here in Black Swan) with sexual fantasies and exploration? Is the portrayal of the ballerina accurate given how it;s the pressure that makes Nina tick? What is the meaning of the lesbian scene? And does Sayers has a personality disorder that slowly destroys her?

The ending of the movie seems way too twisted even if it was small. But to me it seems like this is what Sayers would've wanted. But this film had blown me away and needless to say this is one of the scariest experiences I've ever witnessed. This is intense and unpredictable.

But if you want to dismiss it because you think some scenes are way over-the-top. Think about it. You either think it's a generic psychological thriller or how should I think of it. The nightmares of a chronic masterbating ballerina.

To me, black is beauty.