Movie Review: X-Men: First Class (2011)

I went to see this with a friend today, and I rather enjoyed it. Mind, I haven't seen one and two, but I saw three and four respectively when they came out. I loved Magneto's history - very sad - and Charles Xavier was a great character. The pacing between action and non-action was pretty much good, and the special effects were spectacular. I enjoyed the, shall we say, cameo at one part.

What I didn't understand was this: Why would an ex-Nazi join Russia? Weren't fascists and communists enemies? And diamonds are supposed to be the strongest thing in the world, so how could the lady who turns into diamonds be throttled by metal? Again, I could be wrong about either of those.

But overall, I enjoyed the movie. I really ought to watch them all in order.

Final grade: B

Movie Review: Thor (2011)

I loved this movie. I've seen Kenneth Branagh act (not live, as my parents did before my lifetime), but I believe this is the first movie I've seen which he directed. For those of you not familiar with Norse myth, Thor is the god of thunder. In this movie, he is not precisely a god, but he, his brother Loki, and their father Odin (played by Anthony Hopkins, who is brilliant, and who, by coincidence, my parents also saw live, but at a different time) are revered as such. When Odin defeated the frost giants, he sealed the gateway between his home world of Asgard and the land of the giants, and for years the people lived in peace. When Thor is a young man, he lusts for war and blood, and in his arrogance he causes such. His father takes from him his power and sends him to our Earth. He must regain his honor and therefore his power, and defeat a traitor (no spoilers here).

I never read a whole lot of superhero comics - a few Iron Mans, and that's about it. This movie urged me to read the Thor comics, however. In the case of  Iron Man - and I have heard this is often true - I liked the movies better, because even though I liked the comics, they were kind of cheesy. I still might look into these - just maybe the individual ones instead of one of the huge Essentials collections.

I'd give this movie a B - nothing really wrong with it, it just wasn't the greatest film of all time. I loved it, however, and I hope for a sequel (they'd better, seeing as after the credits was a bonus scene with a cliffhanger).

What do you think?