Tag Archives: Thor: Ragnarok

Top 10: Most Controversial Superhero Movie Moments Pts. 1 & 2

We have, at this point, dozens and dozens of superhero films.  I think you could stack the overall quality of the genre against any other in filmdom, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t had our share of devastating missteps along the way.  Watch Mojo has two videos categorizing the most egregious times comic book movies deviated from the source material or were poorly received by fans.  The greatest hits are here: Spider-Man 3’s disco striding evil Peter, Iron Man 3’s Mandarin switcheroo, Superman II’s amnesia kiss, and Batman vs. Superman’s Martha madness.  Some of their entries feel like stretches.  Yes, The Killing Joke was an abomination, but were people overly upset Thor: Ragnarok was funny?  X-Men Origins: Wolverine’s treatment of Deadpool was awful, but did anyone actually expect more than what we got out of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the Bay edition)?  What moments are missing from WM’s lists?

Ryan Reynolds in X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Jeff Goldblum’s 10 Best Movies

Jeff Goldblum

Jeff Goldblum is an exceedingly unlikely movie star.  The man looks like a human goose and speaks in a cadence that suggests that he could be, at any time, doing slam poetry.  I have a fascination with Goldblum’s vocal stylings.  My grand movie idea (and we all have one) is to put him, Christopher Walken, and William Shatner in a car and simply film whatever happens.  It would be human jazz.  Goldblum first appeared as “Unnamed Freak #1” in 1972’s Death Wish.  As his career incredibly nears half a century you have to seriously admire what sheer nebbishness has accomplished onscreen.  Goldblum has to be paired with the right role because, let’s be honest, we’re pretty much always watching JEFF GOLDBLUM IN (insert name of movie).  But…if you have a quirky character who needs an actor who brings that in bushels, Jeff Goldblum can be the paprika in your casting stew.   Continue reading Jeff Goldblum’s 10 Best Movies

Benedict Cumberbatch’s 10 Best Movies

Benedict Cumberbatch

Benedict Cumberbatch, in addition to being one the finest actors working today, possesses THE most English of English names ever to be bestowed upon an Englishman.  In case you doubted it was his real name, it’s actually shortened.  His full name is Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch.  He has, however, endeared himself to geeks and non-geeks alike by already indelibly visiting the worlds of Tolkien (Smaug and the Necromancer), Star Trek (nobody blames Into Darkness on him), and the MCU (where he is the resident Sorcerer Supreme: Dr. Stephen Strange).  Cumberbatch, with his distinctive, mesmerizing voice and talent for squeezing his narrow frame into giant characters both fictional and real (Julian Assange, William Pitt, Alan Turing), has already made a lasting mark on the big screen and small, where he has achieved an impossible feat with Stephan Moffat and Martin Freeman in updating Sherlock Holmes for contemporary times, while still maintaining the spirit of Conan Doyle’s master detective better than any adaptation in my lifetime (if not period).
Continue reading Benedict Cumberbatch’s 10 Best Movies

My Favorite Scene: Thor Ragnarok (2017) “Thor vs. Hulk”

As the MCU rolls into its 19th film, the franchise has gotten to the point where it is able to do one of the things that made Marvel Comics so successful when they first debuted in the 1960s.  You have a feeling that any character can now show up in any movie at any time, and having built strong characters with deep foundations, you can have a ton of fun playing with new combinations.  The third Thor film does this with both the Hulk and Doctor Strange (mostly Hulk), and even though I loved the first two Thor films a lot more than most, there’s not doubt that Ragnarok is the strongest of the three had the most impact on the overall MCU.


Planet Hulk is a storyline that fans have been clamoring for a film adaptation of for years, but Disney and Universal are bogged down in a lawsuit as to who actually owns the rights to make solo Hulk films.  So Disney just went ahead and backdoored Planet Hulk into a Thor film.  Watching the two most powerful Avengers have a knockdown drag-out fight is epic, and I’ve always been a fan of Gladiator Hulk.  Both in the fight and in the almost-as-awesome sequence with Doctor Strange, you really have to admire Chris Hemsworth’s groove with Thor.  The character was always the most troublesome of the original group to solo (he has a magic hammer, wears a winged helmet, speaks like a Shakespearean character, and lives in a magic realm with rainbow bridge….it wasn’t irrational to be worried).  Hemsworth has managed to make the character noble and increasingly mature but also infuse him with a comedic goofiness about his self-importance and in his relationships with the other Avengers, that I can’t imagine anyone else being able to pull off.

Who knows what will happen to Thor over Avengers 3 and 4, but I’m hoping King Thor gets a chance to relocate Asgard when all is said and done on the other side.  I think there are still more stories to tell with the character now that Ragnarok completely changed his entire character and supporting cast.


Top 10: Best MCU Fights


Hard as it is to believe, preview night viewers will be watching Avengers: Infinity War in just 22 days.  What began with Iron Man in 2008 and has continued through Black Panther earlier this year, is an interconnected 18-film tapestry that has introduced the Marvel Universe to the entire world and created a host of indelible moments.  Some of the best have been the fights (these are comic book films after all) and WatchMojo has put together a list of their 10 best.

The best fights have either been the ones that were deeply personal (Tony, Cap, and Bucky in Civil War or Cap and Bucky in Winter Solider) or were just flat-out battles your inner nerdgeekdork wanted to see (Thor and Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok).  The villains in MCU films are rarely the point, but this list was published before Black Panther was released, and I wonder if the Panther/Killmonger fight would have made the list if they had to do it over.  WM also considered the MCU’s TV entries and, as no surprise, there’s an iconic fight from each season of Daredevil that justly makes the list.  It’s rare in the MCU that the heroes fighting each other isn’t more interesting than a villain showdown.  I doubt that’s going to be the case when the entire MCU comes for Thanos and his Black Order, but we’ve only got to wait 3 weeks to find out.  So were there any glaring throwdown omissions for you on WM’s list?
Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. in Captain America: Civil War