Movie Review: Thor 2--The Dark World

First of All:  I'm not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but I'm a huge superhero fan.  The past few years have been rather enjoyable as we've been treated to all sorts of goodies like the Iron Man movies, Man of Steel, The Amazing Spider-Man, and so forth.  I'm extremely pleased that Hollywood has finally gotten around to making good superhero movies. Now for those more nerd-inclined among you, I don't claim to be an exclusive fan of either of the two massive comic book supergiants, Marvel or DC Comics.  I love them both.  I grew up watching Batman: The Animated Series (Kevin Conroy will always be my Batman) right alongside Spider-Man: The Animated Series.  The love of both sides of the comic industry titans runs deep in me, so don't expect me to pick a side.  If you would like to know who would win in a fight between heroes from either side, I am more than willing to provide an unbiased, objective estimation based on strengths and weaknesses.

That being said, I was very excited to watch Thor: The Dark World, as it starred not only the actors who earned my respect (Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston), but also featured Christopher Eccleston, who is one of my favorite actors from the British TV show Doctor Who.  Sitting down in the movie theater was like Candy Land.

Second of All: The Movie!
Thor: The Dark World picks up where The Avengers left off, with Thor and Loki back in Asgard, where the latter is tried for treason and attempted world domination, and then promptly thrown in jail for...well a really long time.  Thor, on the other hand, has been kept busy running around the 9 worlds, keeping the peace and restoring balance lost two years previously when (spoilers, if you haven't seen the first Thor) he smashed the Rainbow Bridge.

Back on Earth, Jane Foster is trying to cope with real life now that Thor has been gone for 2 years.  The only time he's visited earth was to find Loki and regain the Tesseract during The Avengers, where he did absolutely no checking up on his lady-love.  When a series of strange gravimetric disturbances draw her attention, she accidentally falls into a rift between worlds, where she stumbles upon an ancient weapon named the Aether, which has been buried since an ancient war between the Asgardians and an ancient race named the Dark Elves.

Triggering the weapon draws the attention of both the remaining Dark Elves and Asgard, spurring Thor to finally rush to the rescue and become embroiled in a conflict which will threaten not just his home, but all of existence.

Third of All: The review!
I found Thor: The Dark World incredibly enjoyable, both because of the story and the action scenes.  Its characters were dynamic, fleshed out, and did a great job of following the canon established in the comics.  Obviously, there had to be some tweaks to transform stories that take months or years to play out in the comics into a couple-hour-long movie, but I felt a real connection between the characters of the movie and their comic book counterparts.  Not only that, but even the less-important characters, such as Sif, Darcy, the intern, Malakith, and--to some extent--the common soldiers that act as cannon-fodder, had a depth to their characters that gave the movie a nice feel.

The movie did a great job of showing just how vulnerable even the "gods" of Asgard can be if pitted against those of equal mettle.  Asgardians perish left and right in open battle with the equally-technologically-advanced Dark Elves, and even big shots like Frigga, Loki, and even Thor himself get tossed around in a fight.  Also, it was an interesting thing to see how the Mighty Thor was just as vulnerable to grief as anyone else.

The story was relatively complex, so anyone who missed the first ten minutes of the show--or who is ignorant to the canon established in the comics--would be pretty lost as to what is happening.  Also, the movie does have a few quirks here and there, such as lacking explanation about several of the big plot twists near the end, as well as a few plot holes that could use mending.

Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, as well as the exciting after-credits reveal, which references one of the biggest events ever to rock Marvel's comic book universe in a sneaky way.  Fun things are sure to come.  I give this movie a Five out of Six Nerd Stars.

Let me know in the comments below what you thought about this blockbuster movie, and whether you agree or disagree with me!

Book Review: Steelheart

First of All:  I am a huge Brandon Sanderson fan.  Ever since I first read his novel Elantris, I've been fascinated by his vast creativity and in-depth world-building.  What is so intriguing to me about all of his books is that they're fantasy books (which definitely falls under the nerdy categories appropriate for this blog), but he's not content with sticking to traditional fantasy tropes like spell-casting and dragons and trolls.  He starts from the ground up, constructing entire worlds from scratch, each with their own rules of how things work, their own completely original creatures, and very real-feeling political and economic systems.
Now if that wasn't enough, the vast majority of Brandon Sanderson's works are all tied together in the same universe called the Cosmere, where there's a much bigger cosmic plot running above what most of his characters ever experience.  Some fans might get a bit frustrated that he jumps from one world to the next so rapidly, but I for one am glad to get a consistent stream of his books, even if he does have to take a break from his big projects to work on something smaller.  It keeps him from burning out, which works just fine for me.

Second of All:  The book!
I was a bit sad that Steelheart turned out to be one of the books he writes that isn't set in the Cosmere, but he more than made up for it with one big thing: super powers.  Heck yeah super powers!  I'm a big fan of anything super-human, and so I was jazzed right from the start at seeing my favorite author taking his turn at the super-power batting cage.

As you can find out from the teaser text on the back of the book (or the inside flap of the cover), Steelheart is set in a somewhat futuristic Chicago, where every non-organic substance has been converted into pure steel by a superhuman--or Epic, as they're called here--named Steelheart.  These Epics first started showing up when a huge star-like object called Calamity started floating above Earth, granting certain people superhuman abilities similar to what you'd find in comic books.  The only problem is that every person who turns into an Epic also becomes an evil, power-hungry thug.  Within a few years, Epics have taken over the world, and now fight for dominance over scraps of territory all over the globe.

The story is told from the perspective of David, a young man who watched as the Epic named Steelheart killed his father and then took over all of Chicago, transforming it into a totalitarian state deemed Newcago.  Driven by his desire for revenge and the fact that he's seen Steelheart bleed--though the Epic is supposedly completely invulnerable--he begins collecting information on every Epic he can find.  He stumbles across a group of resistance fighters called the Reckoners, and convinces them to join on his quest for revenge.

Third of All: The review!
I went into the book expecting Brandon Sanderson's typical detail-ridden style, and was surprised to see it much more basic in feel than his normal books.  It is definitely written for a young adult audience, rather than his usual more grown-up readers, and so it reads accordingly.  Those who are expecting something with the feel of The Way of Kings or Mistborn will probably be disappointed and maybe turned off by the simplistic style that he employs here.  Young adults, on the other hand--or those who read at their level--will probably love it (not to mention the super-powers, tons of awesome guns, lots of explosions and the feel of a spy-action novel).

Plot-wise, I rather enjoyed it, as anyone who loves a good underdog story does.  There were plenty of twists and turns, tons of plot twists, a slightly kid-ish love story, and--as with all of Brandon Sanderson's books--a huge climax that doesn't stop till very near the end, leaving you hanging on the edge of your seat to find out what comes next.  I loved most of the characters, though there were only a few who we really get to see in-depth, as far as why they're doing what they're doing.

The only thing that I could really say that I didn't enjoy about it was the lack of explanation about how things work that usually comes with a Brandon Sanderson novel.  In most of his books, the huge climax at the end is so gripping not only due to the events in the book, but also because he drops a huge realization about the workings of the world that explains so much about all of the little clues you've been picking up along the way.  This one did have some big reveals about several characters, but not about the world as a whole, which did leave me a bit disappointed.  Just a bit, though.

Overall, I would give this book a 5 out of 6 Nerd Stars

Last of All: Thank you for getting this far.  Lots of text can be intimidating to some, but not to you, dear reader!  

Let me know what you think of the book in the comments, whether you agree, disagree, and also--perhaps most importantly--if you're as psyched as I am for the next Stormlight Archives book to come out early next year!