You know what I
think? The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s
greatest strength is just how captivating it is.
The idea of a shared
universe/canon might have been absurd at one point, but by and large it’s
worked. It’s worked for individual
movies, and it’s worked for the movies as part of a single unit. I’m not saying that every movie is a flawless
masterpiece, but the strength of each one is that they have the potential to
surpass the “turn your brain off popcorn movie” stigma and offer up something
meaningful under the guise of a suited hero punching dudes really hard. The movies force you to move at their pace --
and that’s not entirely a bad thing.
It’s a sign that a viewer (or me, at least) is getting invested.
That said, I can’t help
but think back to the first Thor movie. As you can guess, I saw it back before I
started the blog and started thinking more critically than ever before -- so
naturally, I ended up calling it a good movie when asked, and went so far as to
put it in the third slot of an informal “top 5 Marvel movies: list” once upon a
time. Thinking back, I wonder if I went
too easy on the movie, especially in the wake of complaints before, during, and
after screenings. Did I miss something? Did I get too swept up in the Norse-on-Norse
action? Hard to say, but if I had to
guess based on evidence -- based on The
Dark World hovering
around the 66% mark on Rotten Tomatoes -- people aren’t quite as forgiving
as I am. But I had to see the movie for
myself to judge for myself. To give the
movie a fair shake.
What did I think? Well, let’s just say you know you’re in good
hands when you can reference a power metal song in the
blog title.
WARNING: SPOILERS IMMINENT. If you have any interest in seeing the movie
raw and without being swayed by others’ opinions beforehand, then you
should…hey, you know what I just realized?
Thor did like five Mighty Smashes in this movie. That’s pretty cool. I think he got an OTG off of one of them, but
he dropped the combo. Good thing he had
X-Factor.