The Marvel Universe keeps on adding new films to the roster and this is the latest addition to the franchise. The original Thor was a good movie, but it definitely had a lot of mistakes that needed to be corrected. A lack of fight scenes is definitely the major problem that I had with the film as it was mostly a comedy. That being said, S.H.E.I.L.D. got a much bigger role in that one as they are basically nonexistent in this film. The Dark World improves upon the original film and even shows us glimpses of hope that the MCU can rise to the Man of Steel’s level of greatness.

All right, I’ll do my best to avoid obvious spoilers, but some may slip out. What’s happening to Jane Foster? Well, I’d call that part of the basic plot so I don’t count it as a spoiler. If you do, then just make sure to skip some of the lines here and there. Thor is busy spreading peace across the nine realms and the film starts out with him finishing up on one of the worlds.

All right….I’m afraid that I’m going to have to bring up one of the negatives about the film early on. In this scene, Thor is fighting grunt level opponents along with Lady Sif and the Warriors Three. They’re doing pretty badly considering that Thor should be able to take these guys down effortlessly and without help. Things didn’t get sketchy until one of the minions nearly destroys Thor with a spear through the head. Lady Sif has to save Thor and it makes you wonder why the MCU has decided to make Thor and the Asgardians so weak.

I can understand why the Asgardians lack power as they are basically humans with some decent weapons. On the other hand, Thor should definitely not be an average mortal in terms of stats, but he appears to be for some of them. Thor’s defense is not great and while he can endure a lot of blows, his skin is only as hard as an average human’s. This means that any sort of dagger, knife, or spear can potentially destroy him in one shot thanks to the old beheading or limb loss treatment. That is a critical weakness as it means that a human could feasibly defeat Thor. If someone’s a master of martial arts, it would be a simple matter to stab Thor and end things in an instant. People may have scoffed at the thought of Batman defeating Thor in the comics, but it would appear to be very feasible in the movies.

Thor’s speed is definitely not impressive as well and he completely relies on the hammer. Without the hammer, Thor does not seem capable of using lightning, flying, and even his strength is not quite as impressive. This doesn’t bode well for Thor and it really shows during his later fights. Before I go into that, let’s head back to the plot.

After Thor has restored peace, he heads to Heimdall to find out about Jane Foster, but she is not on Earth anymore! Thor quickly finds her, but Jane has already absorbed the powers of the Aether. Now, she is a very powerful being who could possibly take Thor down in a fight as her powers increase exponentially. Unfortunately, this is a missed opportunity as she doesn’t use her powers to fight. Thor needs to cure Jane before the power consumes her while dealing with the coming threat of the Dark Elves, who wish to return the universe to darkness!

I’m going to finish my criticisms of Thor before I go into the other negatives and pros since I already started. Thor is very confident in the film, but he seriously cannot back up half of the things that he says. At one point, Thor mentions how he thought that Malekith would hit harder. This would be a great line if Thor had just shrugged off his attack or had been winning, but he says this after Malekith has been effortlessly pummeling Thor into the ground with his attacks. Thor hadn’t landed any hits at this point in the fight so it’s basically empty words. It’s a problem that I have with a lot of the MCU films since they talk very tough and just can’t back it up.

I’m afraid that it’s not over as there were a few more scenes that made me cringe. I should mention that this was a solid film, but as it’s one of the more anticipated films of the year and I just saw it, the scenes are still fresh in my mind. Thor ends up fighting the Kursed and the battle does not go as you may have guessed. Kursed completely annihilates Thor and the latter does not even land one hit. He was completely helpless against Kurse’s (Kurse or Kursed, it’s cool either way. If you want a third name, he also goes by the title of Algrim) attacks and it was the most lopsided fight that I’ve seen in the MCU. Kurse was faster, stronger, more durable, and superior to Thor in every single way during their fight. The MCU has consistently hinted that Thor is not as strong as the Hulk and this film basically cements that fact as Hulk would have put up a much better fight and maybe even have won the battle.

Finally, I’ve got to mention another pair of complaints for Thor. During one scene where a character dies, Thor does not enter into “Rage Mode” or even get ready for some revenge. I was hoping for a Goku transformation after Krillin’s big moment, Naruto’s rage after Haku took Sasuke down, Luffy’s rage after Arlong made Nami cry, Tsuna’s rage after Byakuran terminated his friend, or at least something! Instead, Thor shows no emotion as he fights with Malekith and still has a smile on his face for most of the battle. It’s as if he completely forgot what Malekith did just minutes ago. It definitely did not make Thor look like a likable character.

Which brings me to the final point that needs to be mentioned…Thor murders someone for virtually no reason. Sure, it’s a big fight and all, but Thor ends up destroying a random minion for no good reason. Remember the Man of Steel’s ending? Thor does that to one of the villains and it was a very merciless scene. In retrospect, I have to say that Thor was a much better character in the first film and I didn’t like him in this one. I can only hope that he looks a lot better/tougher in the next film.

All right, that’s enough ranting about Thor. Let’s talk about Loki. He was a pretty solid character in this film and while his true self in the prison was pretty disturbing, he quickly pulled himself together. He mostly treats everything as a big joke, but he gets ready when the going gets tough. He’s still not the greatest hand to hand combatant, but when you’ve got illusions on your side, who can stop you? There was one scene with Loki that was nearly a negative due to plot hax, but I had a change of heart by the end of the film. Many people said that Loki was the best character in the film and while I can’t agree to that, I will say that he was the best hero Protagonist in the film.

Lady Sif and the Warriors Three get a very small role. I still do not like the Warriors Three anymore than usual. Lady Sif was also pretty cool as per usual and at least she didn’t try to get Thor to break his code of honor. That would have been annoying, but only Odin pulled a stunt like that in this film. Lady Sif was cool about the whole thing and got some nice threats in as well. The after credits erm….her final scene is a little tricky. It questions whether or not she’s a hero, but she’s an Asgardian…so she probably isn’t. She was raised to their customs and probably does not know the folly of her ways.

Odin….I almost don’t want to talk about him. There’s nothing nice to say about him at any rate and he was a bad character. He’s a King, but he does the worst possible job in ruling and he makes so many tactical mistakes. When you’ve got an all powerful object, you should try to keep it somewhere safe…like in the vault. I don’t see the logic to giving something like that to an obviously evil shady character who’s evil intent is basically spilling off of the screen. Like Thor, Odin doesn’t show much emotion after the big scene and he basically vanishes for the majority of the film. He didn’t look particularly impressive and if someone tries to compliment him, Odin will quickly make you regret it. Honestly, I’m surprised that Asgard is still standing! Frigga is much better than Odin in this film and she completely overshadows him. She has a pretty solid fight of her own and we learn that she is adept with a lightsaber sword. Heimdall looks pretty bad and he had one scene that was supposed to be cool, but I could not take it seriously as I knew that it was doomed to fail.

This review is getting awfully long, so I’d better wrap things up. Let’s talk about the humans….oh boy. Well, Jane Foster is still around and she hasn’t gotten any better from the first film. She basically messes up someone’s day by tricking him into thinking that he had a chance. She had one good scene where she lands a solid hit on Loki, but that’s her only good scene. She has great powers for the majority of the film, but then she doesn’t even use them. She is an improvement over her friends which counts for something I suppose. Her friends are just bad…there’s not much more to say about them. They are really hard to watch when they’re on screen. Eric talks a good game, but he also looks really bad and has some very pointless scenes. If they had cut out the human characters, then the film would have been that much better.

How about the villains? Malekith is basically your average villain who wants to plunge the world into darkness because he is evil. He serves as a villain who needs to be defeated, but don’t be expecting any huge character development. Without his enhancements, Malekith is not able to beat a non combatant…which is definitely not good for him.

Kurse steals the show in the villain department. As mentioned earlier, he wipes the floor with Thor in the film and he proceeds to defeat everyone in his way. He’s not a mindless brute and he fights with strategy and finesse. It would be great to see him appear again in a future film or at least another Kurse with a different host. I would like to see how Thanos or the Hulk would fare against such a fighter.

The minions were pretty tough, but could they surpass the frost minions? Well, they had much better weapons, but physically they are about the same. They’ve got compacted gravity grenades and laser blasters. The Asgardians were basically defenseless against them, but they have cool weapons of their own. In this film, Asgardians strike with blades that emit energy or thunder and it makes the fight scenes a lot cooler. The problem with this is that you’ll wonder why they didn’t have such tech in the first film. In the flashback that takes place ages ago, they had the swords soooo…it really can’t be explained away.

The final fight scene may also come as a disappointment. Don’t get me wrong, it was still better than some of the other MCU finishing fights like The Avengers, but it was a lot worse than I thought it would be. The fight was way too gimmicky and Thor wasn’t actually fighting half of the time. He and Malekith would fall through portal after portal after portal and it was actually played for laughs several times as they ran away from giant monsters and fell from a building. The latter scene was definitely made for laughs as they panicked and the whole scene was just sad. It makes them both look so weak and unprofessional. The minions also suffer from this during the climax as they trip, get beaten by humans, and make a lot of mistakes. Also, I should mention that Thor is not the one who defeats Malekith in the end. Most of the damage is not really done by him either, but from the help of allies. I won’t say who lands the final hit on him, but it may not be very satisfying.

I should also mention that SHIELD (Forget the periods!) is absent yet again. So, they’re too busy to help rescue the President of the United States in Iron Man 3 and they can’t be bothered to stop an Alien Invasion in London. They better be extremely busy or else this is just not going to make any sense. I doubt that we’ll get a legitimate reason in Captain America, but it’s all right since we know that there are limits to how many actors they can keep bringing back for every film. It’s one of those plot developments that you just need to ignore for the greater good.

All right, I should mention some of the positives because there are a lot as well. (Hence the positive score) The banter between Thor and Loki is pretty good with Loki’s impersonations being a pretty good scene. He picks one character that many may recognize. The fight scenes are much better than then previous films and the speed has definitely picked up. The space invasion scenes were also a lot of fun to watch and the prison break was also very exciting. We had the best villain of the MCU in Kurse and Thor’s intro is always cool. That lightning flash never gets old and it definitely fills you with a sense that something epic is about to begin.

The graphics can be very good and the energy scenes are realistic as well. The film is around 2 hours and while it definitely could have been longer, I can safely say that the film never dragged on. There were never moments where I was hoping that the film would end or scenes where I started to zone out. The film is fast paced and something is always happening…even if it’s not a great something. The fact that the Asgardians and Dark Elves both had very cool tech was great since it made every battle good. Even battles between unnamed foot soldiers were fun to watch for the effects. The film also had a very good soundtrack and I dare say that it may be the best soundtrack in a Marvel film. (Ghost Rider had a great one as well, so it is a close call) There’s a solid opera type music in the film and it plays during the end credits as well so you are given a chance to hear it again.

The ending definitely leaves a lot of room for a sequel and future plots. You may want to stay past the credits, but if you didn’t like the teaser at the end of Avengers, maybe the scenes just aren’t your cup of tea. This film is currently the second best MCU film, but it still has a lot to learn from the experts over at DC. Man of Steel is a superhero film that was virtually perfect and they should start to pick up the fight scenes from that film. Thor seriously needs to look better in the next film and they also need to dial down the unnecessary romance. Jane had her romance plot here which was unneeded and a little boring while her friend also got a subplot that was the most rushed romance ever. It made Thor and Jane’s look developed. It was really just there to stretch out the film and add a few more minutes, but it didn’t help the overall performance. There was a very huge plot hole that is impossible to not notice involving the fact that the holes in space open up from time to time and nobody ever notices. I can’t go into detail without going into the plot too deeply, but needless to say…people should know about these portals that are on Earth. There is no way that people wouldn’t have found out by this time. I do recommend this film to all superhero fans and to people who like to see some action. This is a step in the right direction for the MCU and we’ll see if Captain America: The Winter Soldier can continue like this film or turn out like Iron Man 3.

Overall 7/10

The Sixth Sense is a film where the title should tell you what to expect. This film deals with the supernatural and it’s up to the main characters to stop them. This film is decently well known and I’m sure that you’ve heard about it at some point in your life. If not…well, it’s not like it’s the end of the world…I hope.

The main character of the film is (arguably) Malcolm. The kid who goes by the name of Cole is also very important to the story, but I never cared for the character. More on that later, but it’s time to get into the plot. Malcolm has always helped people get through their problems by having a nice chat and then slowly getting them ready to solve their challenges. After one kid went off the deep end, Malcolm must now redeem himself by helping another kid.

Cole is having a lot of problems right now, so he’ll be a prime candidate for Malcolm. Cole is considered an outsider by the other kids and he’s pretty withdrawn and keeps to himself. Can Malcolm get this kid to become one with society and break through the barriers that keep him from the rest of the world? A better question might be….does he really want to be with the rest of the world? The other kids are pretty mean and petty after all.

That’s basically the plot of the movie and while it’s pretty simple, that gives the film more time for character development. I didn’t like Cole, but let’s go into the history of that. I’ve never really cared for kid characters when it comes to live action films. They’re just not as sympathetic and I only like them in anime or cartoons. Cole was no exception and he could have been higher if he had taken the fight to the undead, but he decides to save the world instead. (In a way) The ghosts were definitely malicious enough to warrant a counter offensive.

Let’s talk about Malcolm. He’s a pretty solid character and he definitely seems to know his stuff. He nearly defeats the kid in their first battle of wits and he always seems to know what to say. He has to help the kid while also worrying about personal issues of his own. It’s tricky, but Malcolm does what he needs too. He may not be the strongest fighter out there, but at least Cole has someone who can defend him if need be. One of Malcolm’s enemies is the part time worker at the ring shop, but let’s just say that he’s no match for Malcolm.

They were really the only two big characters. The Mom and Wife (Separate characters) are both decent characters in their own right, but they don’t get to appear a whole lot so we can’t totally judge them. We can judge the Mom depending on the aftereffects of the Dungeon game, but the film ends before that. If the kids are still walking with Cole, then we’ve got a problem.

There were some plot hax in the film, but nothing completely devastating. One that would come to mind is the final plot twist. I don’t plan on spoiling that in the review, so you’ll need to check it out. That being said, it’s hard to believe that someone did not notice this twist until the very end. There should have been many things that would not make sense to the character prior to the ending. Well, let’s not dwell on it I suppose…

Overall, this was a decent “horror” film. Cole isn’t very good, but Malcolm is a solid character. There’s no soundtrack to speak of and a very small cast overall. If you want a scare, then this isn’t the film for you. It’s more of an emotional story that happens to feature the supernatural. There may be some gross or scary moments in the film, but nothing that will scare you for life. On the other hand, the film is pretty uneventful and some may find it a little boring. Watch at your own risk I suppose. As long as you like the kid and the plot, you should enjoy it.

Overall 3/10

Limitless has a pretty interesting plot and it solves several of the problems that modern movies tend to face. While this won’t exactly be an Oscar winning movie, it’s a pretty fun watch. I can’t really say that I was aware of this film before I saw it, but I don’t expect that I’ll be forgetting it anytime soon.

The film is about Eddie and how his life is not going so well. He’s back to being alone and his book isn’t going along so well. He has a serious case of writer’s block and he hasn’t even started yet! Obviously, this guy’s in trouble, but how will he overcome this? Someone that he vaguely knows ends up giving him a pill, which Eddie swallows. Suddenly, he’s a brand new person who lacks any sort of moral compass, but is also a lot smarter.

While his friend gets murdered and other thugs wish to destroy Eddie, Eddie must use his new abilities and do something cool with them. Will he use his powers for good or evil? That’s what you must ask yourself as Eddie takes to the streets. Of course, Eddie may not be the only one with this new drug. The drug essentially wakes up your brain so that you are able to access all of it. It has some deadly side effects, but Eddie feels that it may be worth it.

Eddie is definitely not a great character as power corrupts and he was never known as a man of great virtue. He mainly uses his abilities for his own personal gain and he also makes a lot of sloppy mistakes. How can someone be so smart and yet, not be smart at the same time? Eddie is constantly slipping up and he also ends up forgetting that he’s a pretty good fighter while he has the pill. He definitely could have used the pills to be a much better fighter and protect the world, but he’s no hero. Of course, you probably already figured that since he did resort to using drugs.

Aside from Eddie, we’ve also got Carl. Carl was the best character in the film and he’s good at blackmail. This guy knew the score right from the get go and he seems to be a very intimidating person. He’s pretty smart and he’s always getting Eddie into a tight spot. He’s a fun character and you’ll want to stick around for the ending and see him at work.

Linda is one of Eddie’s friends and I can’t say that she was a great character either. She has her own fight scene which was epic, but she ended up being friends with the wrong guy. Eddie is a bad influence and he ended up dragging her down with him to the pit of shame. That same pit is where the rest of the characters reside. The villains are generic thugs and they shouldn’t be taken too seriously. They really only get to do a lot of damage because Eddie ends up making some bad choices.

The soundtrack is really good and it shows that there is no excuse for a live action film to not have one. The main theme was epic and in the first minutes of the film, we’ve already got a really good piece of music going. The scenery is pretty fun too as the camera goes very fast in first person mode.

There are some scenes that may be a little hard to believe as well. One of them would be when a guy (Armed with a knife) charges into the park and murders some people as he chases Linda. It’s a pretty park and there seemed to be a lot of guys around, so why did nobody notice what was happening? It was a bit of a stretch for me, but it could have been worse. I also didn’t buy the fact that Eddie had another drug in his box at one point in the film. You wouldn’t miss something that obvious, especially with super brain power. I could mention the fact that the villains break into a fortified house that’s barricaded by steel, but maybe that’s pushing it.

With such a plot, there are bound to be inconsistencies so it could definitely be worse. The ending was pretty great and Eddie finally did something that I had been waiting for during the film. It only makes sense that he could pull off such a feat, so it was a question of when. The ending may also be ambiguous depending on how you look at it, but I like to think that he’s on the level this time. At any rate, we can only hope that he’s telling it like it is.

One of the negatives of the film is the large amounts of romance. Once Eddie unlocks his powers through the drugs, he starts to act like James Bond. It’s regrettable that the protagonists of many films turn out to be very corrupt and despicable people when they obtain power, but that’s the sad truth of Holywood. The scenes are all very wince worthy and you’ll need to try and skip them or maybe just take the time to go to the kitchen and warm up some mac and cheese.

Overall, this was a decently good film. The film had some negatives, but most films tend to have those. The film also had some decently good positives so it’s got a foot in both worlds. The music and plot were good, but the characters and romance dragged it down. Aside from a few scenes, the violence isn’t very bad either, but those few scenes can make or break a film right? This can be a fun film to watch, but if you want a true film about a guy who’s very smart, check out Bleach Memories of Nobody

Overall 5/10

Disclaimer, this is a review of the edited version so that it does not receive an R rating. These thoughts are specifically from that version and the score will likely differ from uncut and cut versions.

It’s time for another horror film, but will it be scary? The truth always comes out to destroy the heroes of such films, but what if they challenge the problem with superior numbers? This is the question that you must ask yourself as the heroes take on their toughest challenge yet! Let’s see how good the film was.

The main character goes by the name of Julie and the film starts out with a party. Julie is having fun and all, with her friends Helen, Barry, and Ray. After some sad scenes that you’ll want to block from your mind, they go into a car and run someone over. They quickly realize that they are immoral people by heart and dump the guy into the ocean. He struggles, but they overpower him with sheer force. At least he’s dead….nobody will ever know what they did! 1 year later, Julie gets a note that heavily implies that their secret it out. Someone is out to murder them all and Julie may be their only hope at this point! Can she really overpower the villain?

Well, the film plays out as more slasher films do. The cast is slowly whittled down as the villain makes short work of them. Physically, he seems to be superior to the main cast and Barry may be the only one who could possibly match him in that regard. (Though it’s unlikely) Unfortunately, there are a lot of moments that are just completely unbelievable and don’t make sense. I’ll only mention a few scenes since there are far too many of them.

1. The villain turns off the lights and the music when one of the characters is scared on the ground floor. Then he jumps out at her from under a plastic as if he were a mannequin. That’s a very (cheap) interesting way to scare the heroes and destroy their morale before destroying their lives, but it didn’t work. How could he turn off the lights and the music if he was already under the plastic? How did he go back downstairs and get into the plastic after murdering another character in such a short amount of time? Why did this film not even try to address these plot holes!?

2. At one point, one of the main characters is running through a dark alley. She pauses for a couple of minutes to stare at the surroundings and give the villain time to pick a place to hide and ambush her. She sees a parade and (slowly) jogs towards them. She sees a suspicious tower of tires, but it won’t deter her. She keeps on going, but the villain jumps out from….THE TIRES!!!!!! I’m sure that was surprising (To nobody) and it was scary for her, but there is another problem. How could the marchers not see this happening? She was extremely close to them and they couldn’t have been more than a few feet apart. Maybe they couldn’t hear her, but with peripheral vision, you would totally see what was happening.

3. The final one that I will point out involves Barry. Barry is on the second floor during a beauty pageant and he’s by himself. (Of course) The main villain appears and quickly gets him in a choke hold. The girl on stage yells for everyone to look up and help Barry as she points to him, but the crowd quickly surrounds her and basically yell a lot so that nobody can hear her. The policeman goes with her to find out what happened, but he took his time and didn’t notice the blood that was around. (The police man doesn’t look good during his “fight” with the villain either) The town must be really slow on the draw since they didn’t look up and see what was happening. Even without looking up, you would be able to see a little of the action, so they must have been legally blind at this point. If not, then this is another plot hole.

There are many more moments like that, but let’s not dwell on them anymore. Let’s go on to the next negative point which is the animal death. Yep, we’ve got the cliched scene where an animal dies and we see someone cutting up another animal. We also see remains of other animals and you have to wonder why the scene was included. Probably just for grittiness, which makes it even worse. This film also had more romance than you’d want in a film and there are several scenes where you’ll just want to skip to the next scene. There are two beauty pageants that are basically filler, but they’re not extremely awful.

None of the four main characters are likable. Julie gets into a romance that goes nowhere and then she lets her friends get away with murder. At least she had some doubts about it, which makes her slightly better than Barry and friends. Barry is the stereotypical drunk who’s mean to everyone and he goes down pretty easily. Helen is also not a good character as she panics a lot and Ray spent half of the film getting knocked out or punched in the face. The police weren’t very helpful and not even the Sheriff could do his job correctly. How about the main character? He’s basically a generic mass murderer who wants to destroy everyone and mess with their minds in the process. There’s literally nothing to like about him and he’s just a villain. That basically wraps it up for him.

All in all, this film is not a horror movie that I’d recommend. The music at the beginning was actually a good way of foreshadowing since it started out good and then the lyrics came in. The characters are all pretty awful and they’re pretty slow on the uptake. The film had too much romance and the animal deaths were overkill. The violence and deaths may not be as graphic as Alien, but you will still want to have your kids skip this film for now. The only place where I will give props to the film is the very ending…you just need to ignore the dozens of plot hax that this scene brings along with it. Instead of watching it, bring your kids with you as you watch Dragon Ball Z Battle of Gods. Now that’s a film will really shake you to the core!

Overall 2/10