Story-liners: Lego Marvel Super Heroes (2013)

Game: Lego Marvel Super Heroes
Release: 2013, Retail
System: Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Playstation Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, PC
Starring: Adrian Pasdar, John Eric Bentley, James Arnold Taylor
Directed by: Mark Hoffmeier
IMDB page: Link opens in a new window
Description: When The Silver Surfer is shot down on his trip to earth, his cosmic board scatters into powerful cosmic blocks. It becomes a race against time, when Earth's Mightiest Heroes are fighting the greatest villains in the Marvel universe, led by Doctor Doom, to stop them from using the new blocks for their nefarious purposes.

Hans' thoughts:

Lego Games. Starting with the Lego Star Wars games, the game company Travellers Tales has managed to turn simple retellings of movie storylines into both a major marketing success and a series of genuinely well-made childrens platformers. This game is the third of their licensed to be based on an original tale, following the two Lego Batman games. The game is pretty much the same formula from the previous Lego games overall, carrying over the open world hub and voiced cut-scenes from Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. Thankfully, while the appearances of other superheroes in Lego Batman 2 amounted to not much more than cameos (save for the case of Superman) Lego Marvel Superheroes benefits from it's title not being bound to a single character. Besides the "must show" characters made popular by The Avengers movie, we have a surprising amount of lesser-known characters making an appearance in the game. I was actually baffled by how little the game banks on using characters and situations similar to the films. Of course you can't go completely without it and jokes like Nick Fury constantly eating Shawarma, or animations like Hulk throwing his enemies in a similar fashion to his most memorable moment in The Avengers can be found throughout the title, some of running gags are based on exaggerating the characters which means that they can become kind of grating on the nerves after a while. There are only so many times you want to hear Captain America make a pun based on his patriotism. Characters having a large part in the story is mainly that of Iron Man, Spider-Man, Captain America.. and then out of nowhere: Reed Richards aka. Mister Fantastic. While not too obscure, it has been quite a while since The Fantastic Four made a major appearance in contemporary media. It just goes to show that the writers has not allowed themselves to be held back by a memo from the marketing depart which, considering the state of the competition over at DC, is really refreshing. The game even has some boss fights featuring lesser known Marvel villains. 

The look of the game, as you may have guessed, is entirely based on Lego's. In the former titles it could look very much off a times but thankfully this time around the higher quality graphics has really helped in making the game actually look and feel like you're looking at the toys interacting with the environments. The voice work of the game is, while not quite up to snuff at times, never too bad. The best one is Clark Gregg, once again reprising his role as Agent Coulson. I have to admit that I have never been much of a fan of the character but it is nice to have him around none the less. There is the occasional line from the others, especially the female actor for Maria Hill, that is read rather mechanically, but it never to the point where you are pulled out of your engagement in just how fun the simplistic controls for the game is. This is a major strong point for the lego games, when you have completed the main story once you're able to unlock tons of well-known characters and collectibles. There are hours to be spent on the game if you're going after 100%. A new addition to the game is additional side-stages, all narrated in comic book fashion by the fan-favorite character Deadpool, who sadly doesn't make an appearance in the main story aside from a small cameo. In the side-stages, you're exposed to mini-stories like The Vulture & Howard The Duck attacking Marvel Studios. These small amounts of Deadpool are at the very least fun to listen to, and of course he's also available as a unlockable character once you've completed the storyline. 

This game, while not encompassing ALL of the Marvel universe (Let's face it, that would be a 50+ hour game) it does manage to make the characters very approachable to even the untrained fan. For the bigger true believers, there are fun meta-gags scattered throughout the game which I'm sure you'll pick up on right away. To me, this was the game at it's finest. Jokes about recurring character tropes, fun (if repetitive) banter from bystanders and a story which managed to only become better and better as the story went along. All the major Marvel villains make a noteworthy appearance, and while it's kinda obvious what the end-game of the villains is, it still makes for a great moment when the jig is up and our heroes have to fight the big bad that's been looming over the story ever since before the title screen. The twists and turns the story makes to include as many well-established Marvel locals as possible also makes for a welcome surprise. There are a few places I would've loved to have seen (such as the African nation Wakanda) but on the other hand, forcing such places into the story would probably have made it suffer from it. As it is, most of the story takes place in the hometown of most of the Marvel superheroes: New York city. While I very much doubt that the interpretation of the city is accurate at all (I've never been there), the map is big enough to make it feel like you're actually making your way through a big city. MArvel Superheroes manages to give a quick introduction to a beloved group of characters, while still telling a fun story. the question "I wonder who's gonna turn up next" is probably gonna be on your mind as you play through this simple, yet enjoyable experience.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Film: Thor: The Dark World
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Christopher Eccleston, Anthony Hopkins
Release: 2013, theatrical
Directed by: Alan Taylor
Previous in the series: Thor
IMDB page: Link opens in a new window
Description: Picking up 2 years after the events in New Mexico, Thor is busy keeping the peace in the nine realms. Meanwhile on Earth, a disillusioned Jane Foster stumbles upon a dormant power from the time when the universe began.

Hans' thoughts:

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the best way to make a good sequel is to take the established setting, expand upon it and amplify everything that's great about it without rehashing the plot-points of its predecessor. Thus we now have Thor: The Dark World. 

So our villain this time is the old race of dark elves, lead by the world-weary King Malakith played by Christopher Eccleston, he plays a very troubled character . As far as villains go, the dark elves are very cool. The Frost giants of the first movie were very much just big blue monsters but the dark elves actually seem like a genuine threat. No one is prepared for their actions and they are completely untraceable - able to strike whenever they would please. Overall, the movie is just much larger in scale. Instead of setting most of the movie in the New Mexican desert with just one big baddie, most of the action film consists of war-like battles, with footsoldiers on both sides. Something they have, perhaps thankfully, toned down is the humoristic aspect. A lot of Thor was him being a fish out of water in the human world and the comedy came from people reacting to him or him misunderstanding the nature of the world he was thrown into. Don't get me wrong, The Dark World certainly has some comedic moments but I felt they worked a lot better this time because they weren't so predictable or thrown in so abruptly. There's not much winking at the audience going "get it?" in this movie.

Most of the film doesn't take place on Earth this time around, instead we are given a much more insightful look in the land of Asgard. This is great because while Asgard certainly looked cool in first movie, most of what we got to see were throne rooms and chambers from Odin's palace. Here we are taken on a small tour around a bit more of the world. This movie also shows us some of the other realms besides the ones we've already seen. The scale feels much grander this time around and It's possible the movie has taken cues from the likeness of Peter Jackson's "Lord of The Rings" movies. Imaginative combinations of science fiction and fantasy as well as some pretty cool designs for the villains our hero encounter, even the minor ones look fairly interesting. In stark contrast is the scenes taking place on Earth. Jane Foster has moved from the desert to the city of London, meaning we also get something at least a little more interesting to look at than in the previous film. All the supporting characters return from the previous film, including the humans who actually gets something to do rather than commenting on the things that transpires around them.

This is one of the best changes from the former movie, while there certainly were a supporting cast in the film they didn't get all that much to do. Most of the original movie were about the characters of Thor and Loki and their sibling rivalry. In this movie the other characters become involved in the adventure, Jane Foster becomes one of the major driving forces for the plot and the relationships between the characters also feel more believable. Tom Hiddleston returns once again as the villain Loki and once again he steals even scenes where he isn't the main focus. We explore more of his relationship with the rest of the family and as with the other movie, this also factors into the events of the film. That isn't to say that he's the only great actor in this piece, Chris Hemsworth has really grown into the role of Thor and he really hits it out of the park in some of his scenes. This is probably due to a much more reserved performance, Thor is no longer the boastful prince of Asgard and for those of us that's followed him throughout all his appearances it is easily recognizable that he has gone through character development. Just like with the Iron Man films, the character development isn't over by the end of the film but you can easily see a change from the beginning of the characters first appearance and to his current adventures. This kind of slow but steady character development is what makes these characters interesting to follow even after several movies. 

Speaking of the other movies, it was a breath of fresh air after Iron Man 3 that the movie didn't rely on everyone having seen The Avengers. One of Iron Man 3's greatest weaknesses was it's constant references to "New York", referring to the climax of The Avengers. Here, the event is definitely mentioned but no more than one or two times. An unfortunate lowpoint however is the reliance on the audience believing the relationship between Thor and Jane Foster. The former movie took place over the span of three days and then they were suddenly in love, akin to what one could call the "Disney Princess romance". This is sort of repeated in this film, while I certainly like the pairing of Thor and Jane I would like their relationship to be expanded upon a little more than is the case in both of these movies. Compare it to the how well done the relationship between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts is done in the Iron Man movies, Tony repeatedly makes mistakes and has to make it up for Pepper in the Iron Man films, whereas in this case it seems the romance between Thor and Jane is way too perfect. Anyone who've been in a relationship with the same person more than once could tell you that the pieces aren't picked up quite as easily as this movie would have you believe. The film seems somewhat self-aware of this though, as a comedic jab at those kinds of love stories are made later in the film. 

If you were bored with the pacing of the original film, rest assured that Thor: The Dark World is a much bigger movie and better for it, albeit much information is thrown at you during the movie it manages to keep focus on the main plot, and keeping all the different strings together in one place. If you liked the former movie, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one as well: We get more facetime with each character and we learn much more of the nature of the setting of the story. With higher stakes, deeper characters and much more action, Thor: The Dark World may very well end up being one of the better movies in the shared universe franchise.

The Avengers (2012)

Film: The Avengers
Release: 2012, Theatrical
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johanson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner
Directed by: Joss Whedon
Next in the series: The Avengers: Age of Ultron
IMDB page: Link opens in a new window
Description: At a secret underground facility, The international agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has hired the brilliant Dr. Erik Selvig to develop a sustainable energy source from the mystical tesseract, used by The Red Skull during the second world war, however things turn sour when the tesseract reacts to something not of this world.

Hans' thoughts:

Perhaps one of the greatest gambles in movie making history, The Avengers is the culmination of what is now known as the first "phase" in a large shared universe project for in-house adaptations of various Marvel comics superheroes. The "phase" in this case being the movies that tie in with this one, starting with Iron Man, followed by The Incredible Hulk, then Iron Man 2, Thor and finally Captain America: The First Avenger. All good movies in their own right, this film stands in front of the enormous task of making a satisfactory climax to all the little hints and after-credits scenes that the former movies has made - Iron Man 2 as an example suffered under almost completely being a trailer for this movie. The film is headed by one of the "Kings of the Nerds", Joss Whedon, creator, director and writer of several big name movies and tv-series that have frankly waved between being fantastic and being all style and no substance. 

One could argue in this particular case, the writers pretty much had their work cut out for them beforehand. Most of the characters (with only one notable exception) has not only been established in former films, but films that all sold exceptionally well in theatres meaning they can rely on everyone knowing exactly who the characters are coming into the movie. This makes the entire movie feel like a 2 and a half hour third act, giving us our very first action scene by the 3 minute point. Fans are of course quickly given exactly what they came for, not much time is wasted one explaining why all these characters would be in the place at the same time and our heroes are all pretty much introduced by what we best know them for. Bruce Banner is on the run from the government, Iron Man is out doing something scientific, Capt. America spends his time punching stuff and Thor is introduced with a thunder storm. When they're mentioned in passing, the audiences know exactly what kind of scene is coming up next: "Ladies and gentlemen, now Robert Downey Jr. will say something funny", "give a big hand to Chris Evans being stoic and old fashioned" is what they pretty much could've been said outright by Samuel L. Jackson whose appearance as Nick Fury pretty much works as the stage announcer. It's like a rock band playing their greatest hit as their opening act as the lights are turned on.

The movie doesn't leave you much time to actually think about several missing plot points between the former movies and this one you're quickly distracted by all the things that are constantly thrown at you, to it's credit, the film indulges the fans in both the "who would win in a fight between.." and "Wouldn't it be cool if.." department, the very recognizable nature of the different characters also make them visible even when the action sequences falls victim to modern technique of "shaky-cam". This kind of thing was a big problem in films like The Transformers movies where you literally couldn't tell which giant robot was fighting which but the looks and designs of the costumes of the characters are kept so true to form that it doesn't pose a problem in this instance. Not much time is spent on character development as the little downtime the movie actually has is spent on quarrels between the teammates or someone relaying exposition. The movie actually spends most of it's lines on short immediate exposition to make the audience ready for what is coming next. Introductions between the characters are pretty much reduced to "Hey, aren't you that guy in the metal armor?" "Yeah and I heard you turn big and green sometimes". It feels unnatural but it's pretty easy to understand why they did it this way: Audiences already know all the big name characters and the writers know that they have to give people what they came to see. While it certainly works for most of the established characters, the character of Clint Barton aka. Hawkeye poses a problem in that regard. Aside from a single scene in the Thor movie, audiences are never really introduced to who Hawkeye is. All we really know is that he's a guy who prefers using a bow to using a gun. This is not helped much in the movie, as he spends most of the film being mind controlled by the movie's villain. We know nothing about the character, so rooting for him when he joins the big climactic fight at the end is neigh impossible unless you know the character from other media.

On the other end of the spectrum we have The Incredible Hulk, Mark Ruffalo being the third person to play the character in the span of merely ten years and the second person to play him in the Marvel Shared Universe continuity. The last person before Ruffalo to play Bruce Banner was Edward Norton, an award winning and hugely popular actor, so Ruffalo stood before the task of being accepted by audiences in a role that has not seen much stability. This is very reminiscent of the comic book Bruce Banner as different writers also tended to treat the character very differently, some having the Hulk persona take over entirely for extended periods of time to simple not deal with having to write drama for the character. Thankfully, Ruffalo does a very good job of making a very withdrawn but hot-headed professor, nervously joking about his condition as a means to cope with the stressful situations he's put into. That combined with his version of the Hulk being the most entertaining thing in the movie, makes sure he more than lives up to taking up "the mantle", if you will. Though it does seem like The Incredible Hulk, incredibly shrunk sometime between it's appearances. The movie, as I said, doesn't go into much detail during it's explanations and one can't help but ask: Where was Col. Rhodes aka. Warmachine who had his origin story in Iron Man 2 during this entire debacle? The question is pretty much ignored in both this film and Iron Man 3. We're just asked to accept that a government agency would rather ask for the help of a loose cannon billionaire than an actual military officer who has a very similar suit of armor. 

On the villain side we have the least substance of all. As with the original first comic book appearance of The Avengers, our main villain is Loki the god of mischief. Tom Hiddleston reprises his role as the character from Thor and in this film he just seems a lot more threatening than his initial appearance. From his very first scene in the movie, he quickly shows off that he is clearly more than enough of a feat to have to be taken on by the entirety of Earth's Mightiest. However, It is never explained what happened between his final scene in the former film and how he ended up allying himself with such a powerful force - force of what exactly? This is the problem with having the film focusing mostly on spectacle, we know next to nothing about the alien race of "The Chitauri" (as race that was made up for the movie by the way) and why they have a reason for attacking the planet earth, instead we have an army of grey-ish monster beings that doesn't talk and pretty much works a living punching bags and cannon fodder for the writers to show off the heroes and their individual superpowers. Had it not been for the talent and charisma of Tom Hiddleston in the role of Loki, the villains of the movie had not been interesting at all. 

The Avengers, while perhaps one of the most accurate and entertaining comic book movies in recent years is a classic example of trading in substance for the sake of style and spectacle. What little drama there is in the movie is simply used as a catalyst for having the heroes go out and punch things and if you expected a film that would work well on it's own I'm sorry to disappoint. The Avengers is pretty much just one long third act of a much larger story, like the last episode of a season of a TV-show. Wrapping up the overarching immediate plot that's been developing little by little in the background throughout the last couple of episodes. Therefore it highly necessitates having watched one or more of the former films in order to be enjoyed properly. If you haven't, all you're left with is a series of spectacle scenes, really well shot and sometimes funny action scenes to be sure but you're not given much explanation for what is going on. For fans, the film is a dream come true: Actually seeing these characters fighting alongside each other in a movie that's not only accurate but actually entertaining and successful is something no one would've ever thought possible - be warned though, while fun and entertaining while you watch it it can pretty easily be picked apart in the plot department. I recommend this film by all means, but I also highly recommend watching the former films in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" first to truly get the most of it.

Thor (2011)

Film: Thor
Release: 2011, Theatrical
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston
Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
Next in the series: Thor: The Dark World
IMDB page: Link opens in a new window
Description: When the arrogant prince of the asgardians nearly starts a war with Jotunheim, Odin strips him of his powers and sends him and the magical hammer Mjolnir to Earth as penance. Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of THOR.

Hans' thoughts:

Based on the Marvel comics interpretation of Norse mythology, Thor brings us a tale of a man who has to learn from the consequences of his actions. 

There's a sharp contrast

"Thor" in this movie is played by Chris Hemsworth, while he certainly looks like the Marvel version of Thor and does a very good job of playing the part (albeit I remember even the Marvel comics version of Thor as being a bit less serious) as a scandinavian I grew up on the Peter Madsen Valhalla comic books and seeing Thor as a big, ribbed, aryan man is just a bizarre contrast to the muscled-yet-potbellied redhead Thor that I grew up with. Okay granted, the two characters were designed with very different purposes in mind and interpreted by two very different artists. It's fun to see an international interpretation of something that's been a pretty big part of my life since I was a kid - norse mythology. Just like in the Marvel comics, all the Asgardian residents speaks in old english, this is why it's only fitting that the movie was directed by Kenneth Branagh who's traditionally known for adapting Shakespearian plays. His biggest project being a 4 hour adaptation of the entirety of Hamlet's original screenplay. That's quite the achievement and having someone who's known for such serious work is a neat contribution to the Marvel movie line-up. 

I don't think the comparison can be more blatant than this

It's also fitting in another regard as well, the Marvel comic book Thor is certainly named after and heavily based on norse mythology but some elements of his origin story are based on Arthurian legend. The hammer Mjolnir traditionally belongs only to Thor, however in the Marvel universe the mighty grinder can be wielded by anyone who's considered worthy enough - this is pretty much the same concept as the sword in the stone. Only the true king of Camelot could pull out the sword and be dubbed true lord of all England. We also have some Shakespearean dramatic elements in that while the story has superpowers and monsters such the story is ultimately a tale of neglect and betrayal - "a house divided cannot stand" as one would could put it. The design of Asgard in the movie are very outlandish, this is because the original Marvel design of Thor was done by Jack Kirby. Kirby was known for being able to create some very outlandish character designs, being responsible for co-creating most of the big-name Marvel comic creations such as Doctor Strange, Fantastic Four,  you can certainly see his special touch in this movie. He wasn't involved in making the film, having died several years previously but the creators decided to keep the character designs and set-pieces as true to the comic book version as possible, albeit adapted a tad to make it more approachable to modern audiences.

The throneroom of Odin as it appears in the movie

As for the actors, they all do a very good job. I'm actually thrown off by how convincingly these people can make the setting seem kinda plausible - given the circumstances of the costumes. Were anyone to nickname the Asgard segments of the movie, it would probably be "Shakespeare in silly hats". This is largely due to the talent of the Asgardian actors. While you cannot deny that the Earth based actors were certainly good (I especially liked Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig) the asgardian cast just had two very good actors aboard. I'm of course talking of the star power of Anthony Hopkins combined with, the MVP of the movie, Tom Hiddleston. Tom Hiddleston portrays Loki, and really runs away with his performance. The character like the original mythic Loki in some regard but given the extra character depth of being the black sheep of his family, living in the shadow of his boastful favorited brother Thor. It's very similar to the Shakespearean character of Claudius. This comparison is obviously not lost on Kenneth Branagh and the confrontations between him and the other characters of the movie are just so well done. You can also tell that Hiddleston had a lot of fun with the character, the grin on his face when something finally goes his way is just priceless - it spells certain doom. While not as present, I also like the performance from Idris Elba as Heimdall, the guardian of Bifrost. He oozes authority and self-confidence, and really seems almost in-human in how stoic he is. This sounds like a hidden jab, but playing an almost completely emotionless character - intentionally. That is VERY hard to pull off, regardless of what anyone would tell you.

"Frost giants".

That aside, I was actually able to take the costumes seriously and I'm loving the updated look of especially Loki. Keeping it true to the original but still a bit more streamlined. I also dig that they actually decided to make the movie have colors, just like the rest of the in-house Marvel movie adaptations the movie didn't attempt to make itself more serious than it is by removing most of the colors from the character designs. Compare this to the X-Men movies that removed the individual costumes from the characters and instead gave them covert-ops type uniforms to walk around in. The earth sections of the movie takes place in a small desert town in New Mexico, the setting is a stark contrast to the colorful look of Asgard and really enforces the magic of the other world. You can instantly tell at any point in the movie when it is taking place on earth and when it is taking place in Asgard, this is helped by the earth sections being color-graded gray while the Asgard sections are color-graded orange/yellow. There is a third setting of the movie called Jotunheim, again contrasted to the others by being color-graded blue. However that entire setting is only present for about 15 minutes of the film combined, and is mostly set in shadows and at dusk. Frost giants, on a side note, is a horrible translation of "Jotun". Jotuns are nothing like giants. Though there are giant jotuns.. no wait, I'm getting off on a tangent here - Jotuns are not giants end of story.

I Thor, You Jane

As far as adaptations of mythology goes, this is a very inaccurate version. However, as far as comic book adaptations go this is pretty darn accurate. It sticks to the original looks of the characters, it doesn't add unnecessary extra drama to make itself more mature and on top of all that it manages to be fun to watch while still having some pretty serious elements to it. Thor is part of the Marvel cinematic universe and would be the first one to add a mystical element to the setting. Prior movies in the continuity having been mostly based on science fiction. Tom Hiddleston would also go on to be the best Marvel movie villain thus far, a man driven to desperate measures by a neglectful family is something anyone can relate to. However much you love your family, being a family can be hard and sometimes it just drives some people over an edge they cannot come back from. The lovestory present in the movie is, while very sweet a bit out of place given the rest of the movie. It falls into typical Disney romance territory when it comes to how short it is. For the purposes of establishing it as part of the Marvel lore however, I glad they kept it in, if anything to get a heartwarming break from all the drama of the Asgardian setting. While not the greatest superhero movie ever, it certainly deserves recognition as being a good movie. A fantasy adventure with a great hero and a greater villain.