Review: Why spending a few hours with Thor isn't the worst idea in the world

Thor is the latest in a long list of superhero movies and could well be the best of the lot, simply because it doesn’t take itself too seriously but is still serious about what it does, if that makes any sense at all. Thor doesn’t pretend to be what it is not, and instead throws all its efforts at entertaining you - and this is does with unerring Mjolnir-like accuracy.

At first impression it seemed a bad fit to ask Kenneth Branagh, a man famous for his film versions of Shakespeare’s plays, to direct a super hero movie. In fact, Branagh makes this work for him as he seizes upon the Shakespearean themes in the Thor story like sibling rivalry, attempted regicide and dynastic squabbling and draws them cleverly onto the big screen. Branagh adroitly weaves them in with normal superhero movie themes like action, fantasy, and romance and gets the tone exactly right in each scene, blending them in such a way so that no one theme overwhelms the others. The script is highly entertaining as it moves along at a good pace and is blessedly free of one of those overlong background stories that superhero movies make way too much of. The acting is also top-notch without a weak performance in sight. The entire cast of actors from Anthony Hopkins down is excellent with the charismatic lead Chris Hemsworth announcing his rising star (and washboard abs) in no uncertain terms.

Thor is based on the Marvel Comics superhero - a Norse god who is about to be crowned king of Asgard by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Thor’s pride is expertly manipulated by his jealous younger brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) who wants to ensure that he is crowned king instead. Prompted by Loki, Thor sparks a war with the Frost Giants, which results in Odin stripping him of his powers and banishing him to earth. Odin wants his hulking blonde son to learn some humility and compassion while walking earth as mortal weakling.

After crash-landing in New Mexico, Thor is rescued by a scientist called Jane (Natalie Portman) along with a colleague Erik (Stellan Skarsgard), and their very funny scene-stealing assistant Darcy (Kat Dennings). The separate arrival of Thor’s unliftable hammer Mjolnir attracts the attention of SHIELD agent Coulson (Clark Gregg, you may have seen him in Iron Man). Thor attempts to retrieve his hammer and adjust to life on earth, all the while Loki continues scheming to be named king and dispatches the Destroyer (a giant robot) to kill his still powerless brother. As an aside, the scriptwriters had a lot of fun playing around with Thor adjusting to his new life without super powers, and some of these scenes are guaranteed to leave you smiling.

Don’t expect much from Thor, but do expect to be thoroughly entertained. In short, Thor is a lot of fun and as such is a great way to spend a few hours relaxing over the holidays. Three and a half stars out of five for Thor.

Review: Does Sucker Punch manage to 'sucker punch' me? You decide!

Sucker Punch is a modern day ‘The Emperor’s Clothes,’ but not on purpose. Director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) has already argued that those dismissing this movie as sensationalist trash for its use of scantily clad woman and over-the-top action, are ironically enough, the ones being sucker punched. This is because Snyder’s whole intent was to challenge those who leer at but cannot emotionally connect with women. The eye candy is a way of getting you to sit quietly on your cinema seat so that the true message of the horrors of sexual abuse and oppression can be communicated. Snyder wants to blindside people in a multilevel kind of way, and feels that as long as they are talking about whether Sucker Punch is sexist or not, then the movie is a success.

This is the point, where, just as with the ‘The Emperor’s Clothes,’ we need voices from the crowd to shout out, “But he actually has no clothes on!” For the weakness of Sucker Punch is that like the con men in the children’s story, it spins a lot of style, but almost no substance. You cannot tell a story without having a story. I refused to be conned on this one - the reason I did not emotionally connect with the female leads is not because I am a leering pervert, but simply because the movie was 99% visual stimulation and 1% story. Yes, it undoubtedly has wonderfully imaginative visuals, and yes, the video-game style of rapidly-changing and often bizarre looking scenes are cleverly used to represent the differing realities within the perspectives of the central characters. But style alone is never enough to drive a really good movie, for that you need substance, and at the end of the day, the story doesn’t carry this movie, rather the dramatic action and arresting visuals do, and they, frankly, are not intrinsically weighty enough to do the job.

What story there is has Emily Browning playing a 20-year old woman placed in a mental institution by her sexually deviant stepfather who wants her lobotomised. Nicknamed Baby Doll, she resorts to multilayered fantasies as a means of contending with her monstrous reality, and as a way of gaining the strength she needs to break free. Along the way she meets four other beautiful young women who are similarly vulnerable because of their gender and lack of social punching power, and they join forces to search for the five essential items that will enable their escape.

While the core message is commendable, and the use of metaphor in the action scenes is clever if not brilliant, ultimately it is hard to escape the fact Snyder is still using scantily clad women to communicate the wrongness of over-sexualising others. This brings me to the crux of my argument, in that this intended paradox is not enough to climb out of a seedy, sensationalist pit, simply because the story is weak and the acting ineffectual. A compelling human message needs the substance of compelling human drama to pull it through, while a fancy parade of colourful scenes is nothing more than exactly that, a parade and not a story, and therefore neither is it a message.

Yet, I suspect if I had to argue this with Snyder in person, we would go around in endless circles with him saying, “Exactly! How ironic because you have been sucker punched!” while I would be responding, “But Emperor Zack, this whole thing feels naked!”

One and a half stars out of five for Sucker Punch and be aware that it fully earns its PG13 rating.

Review: ‘Limitless’ is a movie that overdosed on stupid pills

‘Limitless’ is a movie that seems to have taken an overdose of stupid pills.

How else do you explain a production lucky enough to have a fantastic central idea combined with charismatic acting, yet ultimately it manages to deliver nothing special at all? Really, this movie seems to use only 20% of it’s brain, probably due in the main to a weak script that clothes ‘Limitless’ with a B-grade feel, especially compared with the movies it tries to match up to like ‘Inception’ and ‘Source Code’.

‘Limitless’ stars Bradley Cooper (‘Hangover’ and ‘A-Team’) as Eddie, a writer with a mental block whose life is going nowhere. When his girlfriend dumps him Eddie hits rock bottom, which is why when offered access to a revolutionary new drug called NZT that allows the user to access 100% of their brain capacity, Eddie jumps at the opportunity with very little moral angst. Eddie’s life turns completely around as he quickly gains immense financial and personal success from a drug that enables him to remember everything he ever read or experienced, learn new languages in 24 hours, master complex equations in a moment, mastermind Wall Street, and, presumably, (wait for it) even completely understand the plot of 'Inception.'

There is a strong drug danger warning behind 'Limitless', because we soon see that all this glory comes at a price. It seems there are limits to being ‘limitless’ because Eddie falls foul of some powerful people who would do anything to get their hands on his stash of NZT. Included in this list are the obligatory Russian mobsters, and also a ruthless Wall Street supremo played with cunning menace by Robert de Niro. Eddie's life is further complicated by the side effects of the drug, which without spoiling it for you, are pretty hectic.

The first third of ‘Limitless’ matches its intriguing central idea, but ultimately a promising start is not capitalised on. Despite the charm and intensity that Bradley Cooper brings, ‘Limitless’ descends to being nothing more than mere popcorn fodder. The last quarter is actually rather dark and violent (you might want to have finished your popcorn by then), and while the final resolution is satisfying enough, it is hard to shake the disturbing events leading up to that.

Ultimately, Eddie proves to us that having all the smarts in the world does not actually make you wiser. He chooses to use his new-found brilliance to make money and impress people, but it doesn’t even cross his mind to do something truly useful like working on a cure for cancer. Clever Eddie does some profoundly stupid and selfish things, which Robert de Niro’s character correctly understands as because Eddie did not have to work for his gift - he sacrificed nothing to develop his talent, and thus cannot handle it without causing destruction.

Two and a half stars for a movie whose imaginative idea was sorely limited by unimaginative writing and a failure to get to grips with the fact you don’t necessarily need to dumb down to be entertaining. Be warned that there is plenty of violence and bad language throughout.

A Movie with Meaning: Somewhere

I can think of few people better than Sofia Coppola to produce an autobiographical commentary on Hollywood. From her experiences as a little girl and then later a young actress on the sets of her father’s movies, Coppola finds herself able to bring into her stories the reality of life behind ‘celebrity,’ much as she did in the fabulous ‘Lost in Translation.’ Coppola grew up with a front row seat of various celebrities at the pinnacle of their careers, and brings her sharp and nuanced observations into play in all her work, just as she has done here in ‘Somewhere.’

Coppola’s message is simple: Fame (much like money or other forms of outward ‘success’) won’t give your life meaning. These things won’t bring you substance, depth or provide any lasting joy. In fact, just the opposite, they will leave you constantly hungry for more, always needing another quick fix of nothing. In ‘Somewhere,’ Stephen Dorff plays the American actor Johnny Marco, and he is the ultimate hollow man. His life is much like the archetypal couch potato lying in front of the TV eating crisps, except Johnny languishes on a celebrity sofa of emptiness, watching movies of himself doing nothing, while consuming endless amounts of money and sex. The reality of his tragic inner nothingness is superbly communicated in an opening scene that depicts him driving his black Ferrari in monotonous circles around a racing track. He has the car, but he has nowhere real to drive to, and his self-absorption has rendered him incapable of being able to share the joy of the moment with others.

Johnny Marco’s life has very little, if any, meaning and Coppola communicates this message through the use of a technique I call ‘savage boredom.’ By ‘savage’ I mean she ruthlessly shows up the complete banality of people like Johnny, but she does this through allowing us to share in his boredom. Johnny spends much of his time wondering what to do next, staring at walls, while the camera stares back at him. Some people are afraid of silences in conversation, but Coppola is completely unafraid of similar awkward silences in movies - moments of sheer nothingness that actually say far more than any sermonising would.

However, ‘Somewhere’ is not just a dark glimpse into Hollywood, but is also a beautiful picture of redemption. Johnny’s redemptive opportunity comes when he is forced into a real relationship with his 11-year old daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning). Slowly, slowly Johnny starts to awaken to meaning as he grapples with looking after someone other than himself. Johnny is almost completely dead to life, emotionally and spiritually he is nothing but a zombie, even sex is just a mindless manipulation of genitals. But his relationship with Elle slowly breathes life back into him. Not perfectly, and not all at once, but gradually Johnny awakens, and starts to turn his life in a direction that will actually take him somewhere.

Relationship is eventually what saves Johnny, yet thankfully Coppola depicts this without sentimentality or twee neatness. The growing meaning his daughter brings him is not Johnny’s salvation, but rather it is a catalyst moment, an opportunity to launch himself in new directions. Johnny’s car is constantly symbolic throughout the story, and is used again by Coppola in the final scene as she shows him walking away from the vehicle, as if to say that he has finally had enough of nothing and nowhere.

‘Somewhere’ has an undeniable charm, with strong yet understated acting, and striking visuals and cinematography. It is not the most entertaining movie to watch, in fact, frankly speaking, it can even be a little boring at times. Yet, as already mentioned, the ‘boring’ parts are intentionally structured in, and by including them Coppola shows the courage of her convictions. Boring at times it may be, yet strangely enough ‘Somewhere’ will not let go of you once you have walked out of the cinema. It’s message gnaws away, asking you to assess the ‘movie’ of your own life, to investigate your particular story and whether you are also just going through the motions, less spectacularly than Johnny perhaps, but no less emptily. In the end, Coppola’s final scene of hope is angled just right - Johnny’s redemption is at hand, but the decision of living with more meaning and purpose is one he will need to make everyday. And so will we.

Three and a half stars for ‘Somewhere’. Please note that 13 age restriction is well earned with plenty of nudity, sex and bad language.