Damn, Marvel have been on a roll with the move releases this year, haven't they. "Thor"s been out since the beginning of May, "Captain America" is coming out in July, and this month Fox decided to join the fray with their most recent attempt to revive their X-Men franchise. Just coming back from X-Men and having long delayed giving you all my thoughts on "Thor," I'll be double-featuring them right here.
"Thor" is just plain awesome in a way that movies have not been awesome since the '80s swords-and-sorcery boom. It isn't a comic book movie in the traditional sense, but a space fantasy epic that looks and feels very similar to the 1980 "Flash Gordon" movie. It's all-out, 100%-commitment weird, and it is AWESOME for it. Screen time is divided between the space-fantasy wonderland of Asgard and 21st-century Midgard (Earth), and the schism can be felt not only in setting, but in acting style. Everyone from Asgard is putting on their best Shakespearian melodrama, and everyone from Earth acts basically how everyone from Earth acts in your average modern Hollywood movie. It's awesome, end of story, go see it if you have even one drop of geek blood in you.
This is one of those things that underscores the recent trend that comic book movies have gone through. The movement is towards more authenticity to the comic books, which means more of the characteristic weirdness will be translated to the screen. We've seen it in "Kick-Ass," "Scott Pilgrim," and "Watchmen" (to a lesser extent) and we're beginning to see it being carried over into the Marvel movie universe and likely into DC's with "Green Lantern." The only property that has been sheltered from this trend is Batman, for which the Chris Nolan films remain, and have every intention of remaining, cerebral crime dramas with occasional appearances from Batman. Nothing wrong with that, but it does put blinders on the focus of the Batman mythos in this context. The "Batman: Arkham Asylum" video game shows you much more of Batman's brand of weird.
Speaking of comic book weirdness, let's move on to "X-Men: First Class." Brian Singer is back in charge as the producer, and he's brought the Hammer of Retcon down upon "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" giving us a prequel to the two movies he was involved with. It's hard to have faith in a series that's been circling the drain for a good portion of the last decade, but I can safely say that "First Class" redeems it all.
The themes of discrimination and struggling with being different are back in the limelight, as well as the relationship between Erik Lensherr (Magneto) and Charles Xavier (self-explanatory) in their earlier years. Yes, the series is done sucking Wolverine's cock, as he's demoted to only a brief cameo as much more interesting characters are given the screen time. The two leads give surprisingly good performances, even considering that they were played by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan in the previous films, and the rest of the supporting cast holds their weight as well. Cold War tension and '60s class elevate the whole production as the film runs with a plot that would be right at home with one of the old James Bond movies and runs with it. There's no restraint here; nothing was cut in fear of it looking stupid, from the yellow Spandex uniforms of the X-Men to Magneto's horned helmet at the end.
X-Men is definitely out of the toilet for a while, and Thor is off to a flying start. And it's only just begun; there's still "Green Lantern" and "Captain America" to talk about. Guess this calls for another double-feature come July.
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