Movie Review: ****^Thor Ragnarok (2017)

Lots of interesting action in this movie, and lots of heroes.  Hela (Cate Blanchett) is back.  She is the oldest daughter of Odin (Anthony Hopkins), and served at his side during Odin's warring period.  However as Odin became more peaceful, and Hela wished to continue warring, she was confined.  Now she is back, and the first thing she does is destroy Thor's hammer and then banish Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to a throw away world.  There Loki takes up politics, and Thor becomes a gladiator and set to face The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).  The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) of the games likes his champion and makes sure Hulk wins.  But the Hulk takes Thor to his room, where Thor plans his escape with Hulk and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) his captor, who is also from Asgard.  They refuse, but he leaves anyway, towards Hulk's space ship to get off the planet.  Hulk follows him.  Hulk has been the Hulk steady for over two years, but in the spacecraft he hears the voice of Natasha Romanoff, and converts to Bruce Banner.  Then Loki and Valkyrie also show up, but they need a better vessel to get through a worm hole, and Loki helps them steal a vessel, but he has turning over Thor on his mind.  This is thwarted, and he is left with the escaping slaves of the planet.  Thor makes it back to Asgard, just in time, as Hela has control, and is about to wrest the sword controlling the bridge from Heimdall (Idris Elba).  This paves the way to a great struggle.  Hela is just too powerful, except for maybe against, Surtur, who according to prophesy will destroy Asgard.
This movie takes a plot change at the end, and desperate measure are needed to rescue the people of Asgard.
Tony and I saw this, and we had a good time.  Loved the action, and the characters, and also the banter between Thor and Hulk.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ***Thor: The Dark World (2013)

This is the second movie based on the character Thor (Chris Hemsworth) not included "The Avengers."  This movie is two years after the original Thor.  Thor has not been back to see his love interest, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman).  She has been sad.  However, when she sees what appears to be a break through in astro-physics, some strange phenomenon, she decides to investigate.  She gets pulled into some kind of a vortex, and in doing so a strange power of the dark elves enters her.  She also makes it to Aasgard, where she is considered an enemy because she possesses this weapon.
The dark elves feel she has stolen their power, and are determined to capture her.  They attack Aasgard, which is almost successful except for the queen, who sacrifices herself to save Foster.  Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Thor's adopted brother, provided key information to the attackers.
However it is Loki who holds the key to success when Thor, Foster and Loki go to confront the dark elves.  Loki appears to have sacrificed himself for Thor's benefit.  The fight ends up on earth, because of the alignment of the planets.  Foster and her astro-physics friends find a way to send the dark elves back to where they came from.  Thor has a big battle with the lead elf.
This movie is not my favorite in the Avenger series.  The astro-physics stuff is over my head.  The filming of battle scenes in the dark world were too dark to know what was happening.  In the end, most of it was a convoluted mess.  Even thought Tony likes most of the Avengers, he was not interested in Thor saying he doesn't like Thor.  After watching I can understand why.  However the first we saw at the theater, and it was more enjoyable.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****^Hitchcock

Hitchcock is a 2011 movie starring Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock and Helen Mirren as his wife Alma Reville.  It also features Scarlett Johansson as the actress Janet Leigh.  I watched it through Netflix DVD.

I found this movie very entertaining.  It is about the making of Psycho.  I was fascinating with the making of a film, and even more fascinated with Hitchcock and his wife, coming together to make a triumph.  They took a great risk with this movie, as Hitchcock could not find financial backing, and had to back the movie himself.  There were so many nuances to the making of the film that at times it seemed the project was going to fall apart. There was dealing with the studio, dealing with the censors, and dealing with personal pressure at home because of they mortgaged their home to make the film.

Overlapping this is the relationship between Hitchcock and his wife Alma.  Hitchcock determines she is having an affair, and this effects his work on the movie.  However when he collapses from exhaustion, Alma comes up to keep them going and to keep production from falling too far behind, or to keep the cost overruns from being too great. Alma was not having a physical affair, but perhaps one of loyalty as she was helping a friend write a book.

In the end, this movie was Hitchcock’s greatest success, even surpassing “North by Northwest.”  I am putting this movie in my motivational movies.  It shows what can be accomplished with a dream, determination and resolve.  

I don't think youngsters would appreciate this movie.