Thor: The Dark World

For some reason, I don’t have super high expectations for Thor: The Dark World, even though I enjoyed the first one and I have every plan to see the sequel in theater. Maybe its because the chief antagonists are called Dark Elves? I don’t know. On the plus side, I’m all for Thor and Loki sharing a quid-pro-quo, Silence of the Lambs relationship, even if I am mildly disappointed that Loki’s not chained to a rock with acid dripping on his face. (I’m not just a sadist. Read your mythology.) Also, while Kenneth Branagh isn’t directing this installment, I’m a little relieved that the guy who is directed a decent handful of Game of Thrones episodes. That could be a good sign.

All I know is, Kat Dennings better not only been in this movie for a couple of minutes, or I will be revolting. All praise Darcy Lewis and her Taser of Might!

Catching Fire

I had planned to read this book before the movie came out, but the stack of must-reads is growing daily by my couch, so I don’t know. It might not happen. As far as the trailer itself goes, it’s okay, I guess, although there’s nothing about it that’s, I don’t know, super gripping. But I liked the first movie pretty well, and I’m hoping to like this one too. I sure hope I like Gale more in this one, because he looks to be a considerably larger part now, and if he’s as leaden here as he was there . . . well, that’s going to be a more significant problem.

R.I.P.D.

I’ve been waiting to see footage for this movie for, oh, maybe a year now, and now that I finally have . . . well, I can’t pretend that I’m not a little disappointed. Admittedly, not too disappointed: this isn’t an encore of Now You See Me, a movie that went from have-to-watch to not-interested-at-all once I saw the trailer. But I’ve gotta say, I was kind of hoping for a little less silly, over the top, CGI fest. Still, I’m all into an undead police force story, and the stellar cast (Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges, Mary Louise Parker, James Hong, Kevin Bacon, Mike O’Malley, and Robert Knepper) are serious bonuses to any film.

This movie seems a little unlikely to be a giant blockbuster hit, but I’m kind of hoping for one anyway. I think Ryan Reynolds deserves a win.

The Bling Ring

This isn’t the kind of thing I’d see in theater, but I’m sort of amused by this trailer, despite myself. I’m not Sofia Coppola’s biggest fan (I had mixed feelings on The Virgin Suicides and I actively disliked Lost in Translation), but I do like Emma Watson, and the dark humor in this made me smile, particularly, “I’m a firm believer in karma, and I think this situation is a huge learning lesson for me to grow and expand as a spiritual human being. I wanna lead a country one day, for all I know.”

I could rent this one.

Finally . . . Byzantium

I think I posted a trailer for this movie some months back, but this is a newer one, and it looks pretty awesome. I can’t remember the last time I was this interested in a vampire movie. Okay, I can, but it’s been a while, and anyway, for as many vampire movies as there are out there. . . not very many of them are actually all that good. This looks like it could be one of the good ones. Here’s to hoping, anyway.