Aloha! Happy Finals Week, BYU.... Thankfully my finals are over
now and only one class took until I'm officially done my bachelors degree (even
though I'm walking this week). To celebrate I've got a post for you about the
Marvel Cinematic Universe. This week is about three big movies for SHIELD: The
Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, and Thor.
The Incredible Hulk
 |
| Hulk/Banner saves New York from the Abomination |
This Hulk movie (starring Edward Norton instead of Mark Ruffalo)
starts with Bruce Banner already having become the Hulk and on the run from the
military. While he's hiding out in Brazil, the military, led by
General Ross
and helped by Emil Blonsky, finds him. So he goes on the run again, all while
trying to get help from Mr. Blue to take care of his little green problem. Once
Bruce gets back to the United States, he reunites with his ex-girlfriend, Betty
Ross, who is General Ross's daughter.
During a fight at Culver University, Bruce turns into the Hulk
and ends up having to protect Betty, who had ended up in the line of fire of
her father's men. Bruce and Betty go on the run, making their way to NYC to
meet Mr. Blue who tries to get rid of Bruce's Hulk problem. Seemingly cured,
Bruce and Betty end up in custody and Blonsky persuades Mr. Blue to use Bruce's
blood to give him more power. Bad move, Mr. Blue. Blonsky, now the
"Abomination", is rampaging in NYC, which persuades General Ross to
let Bruce fight him. With some help, Bruce wins and then goes on the run.
Finally in isolation, he tries to learn to control the Hulk experience.
Meanwhile, Tony Stark comes to talk to General Ross about a "team"
that's being put together.
Random Trivia/Connections:
•
The serum that Bruce was originally trying to
replicate was the same Super Soldier Serum that turned Steve Rogers into
Captain America in "
The First Avenger".
•
General Ross, Bruce's initial nemesis in this
movie, will reappear in "
Captain America: Civil War", coming out next
month.
•
In the post-credits scene, Tony alludes to the
Avengers team, which concept was introduced to him during the events of
"Iron Man 2", which occur concurrently with this movie.
•
In "
The Avengers", Black Widow
mentions that SHIELD has been keeping the army away from Bruce since the events
of this movie.
Thoughts:
While definitely different from the Mark Ruffalo Hulk, I actually
enjoyed this movie, despite hearing that it wasn't very good. One critique I
have, which is actually more of a critique of "Age of Ultron" is that
we haven't seen Betty Ross since this movie. Why is Bruce even considering
anything with Black Widow when Betty is out there? Did something happen with
her to push them apart or has it just been the passage of time since 2008 when
this movie happened? Seven years is a long time, but I just wish they would
address it. Maybe they will in "
Civil War" when General Ross appears?
I doubt it, but who knows. When it all comes down to it, this movie is worth
watching. Even though the actor for Bruce Banner changes between this one and
"
The Avengers" it still fits as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
(it's not like he's the only one who's been recast; just look at War Machine).
 |
| Fury gives Stark a good talking to. |
Iron Man 2
Right on the heels of "Iron Man", Tony has announced
that he's Iron Man. Meanwhile, Anton Vanko is plotting against Tony Stark. Six
months after outing himself, Tony has helped establish peace in some powerful
countries and he's opened the Stark Expo. However, he also has the government
after him, questioning if the Iron Man suit is safe in the hands of Stark. They
want him to hand it over, but of course that's not Tony's style. He ends up leaving
the trial humiliating his rival, Justin Hammer.
However.... Tony also is dying. His arc reactor is slowly
poisoning his blood. Accepting his impending death, he appoints Pepper Potts to
succeed him as CEO and a Natalie Rushman replaces Pepper. Later, while Tony has
a mid-life crisis (or end-of life crisis?) on a race track, Vanko attacks him.
Long story short, Iron Man beats Vanko, Tony learns that Vanko's father works
for his father, and Hammer hires Vanko to create suits for him. As the mid-life
crisis continues, Rhodey shuts down Tony's birthday party, resulting in a
drunken super suit battle (drunken on Tony's end). Humbled for once, Tony is
able to save himself, with the help of Nick Fury.
Meanwhile at the Stark Expo, Hammer unveils Rhodey as War
Machine, which turns out is controlled by Hammer. So while Tony rushes off to
save Rhodey, his body guard Happy Hogan and Natalie Rushman (who is actually
Agent Romanoff aka Black Widow of SHIELD) rush off to help stop Hammer. War
Machine and Iron Man fight off Vanko and Tony rushes off to save Pepper from an
explosion. And finally two share a kiss. Yay! As the movie ends, Fury says that
they want Iron Man as a consultant for the Avengers Initiative. Finally, in the
post-credit scene, Agent Coulsen arrives in New Mexico and finds a strange
hammer that leads us into the next movie...
Random Trivia/Connections:
•
When Tony and Fury talk near the end of the
movie, there's a news report about an incident at Culver University, the same
incident involving the Hulk in the previous movie.
•
A prototype of
Captain America's shield is seen
in Tony's lab.
•
When Fury talks about Coulsen's absence, he
mentions an incident in the southwestern part of the country, which we find out
in e next movie is a small town in New Mexico.
•
Wakanda,
Black Panther's home country, is seen
on a map.
Thoughts:
I've heard lots of critiques on this movie (most of which come
from my friend Justin). Honestly, it was a decent movie. Not my favorite, but I
just think they were doing too much. We had the action with Vanko, Tony's blood
poisoning, the Stark Expo, the stuff with SHIELD, and all the stuff between
Tony and the US government. Just felt like there was a lot going on. In total
though, a few important key points still affect other movies: Black Widow was
introduced, War Machine was created, and
the Avengers Initiative is introduced.
Thor
 |
| All those muscles put to waste. |
Flashback to the 10th century AD, we see the beginnings of Norse
mythology and we see Odin and his Asgardians defeat Laufey and his Frost
Giants. In the present, Odin's son Thor is getting ready to become king.
However, the Frost Giants attack. In anger, Thor goes to the home of the Frost
Giants with his brother Loki and four friends, but instead of fixing things he
makes things worse and he basically gets grounded... To earth... In New Mexico.
Where he gets hit by a car. So around the same time that Jane, Darcy, and Erik (who hit him with the
car) get him conscious again, Agent Coulsen finds Thor's hammer. He proceeds to
take all of Jane's research on wormholes. It's about at this point that Thor
sneaks into the facility that SHIELD built up around the hammer, beating every
SHIELD agent until he gets to the hammer, only to find that he can't lift it.
He's permitted to leave the premise with the help of Dr Erik Selvig, but
manages to nab one of Jane's notebooks on his way out.
Meanwhile on Asgard, Loki discovers that he's really a Frost
Giant (kind of a runt of a giant) so when Odin basically goes comatose he takes
the reins of the kingdom. He strikes a deal with Laufey and the Frost Giants in
order to secure his reign. Meanwhile, Thor's friends travel to Earth to try to
get him out of exile, only to have the Destroyer attack. Being willing to
sacrifice himself for Jane's safety, Thor's power is restored and he's able to
defeat the Destroyer before returning to Asgard to take care of Loki. Loki ends
up double crossing and killing Laufey to try to prove himself to Odin. A fight
ensues between the brothers with Loki trying to destroy the Frost Giants with
the power of the bifrost, but Thor destroys it. With both brothers hanging over
the abyss, Odin wakes up and saves them in the nick of time, except that Loki
decides to drop to his apparent death. Meanwhile, not knowing that the bifrost
was destroyed, Jane is left waiting for Thor to return, so she continues with
her research. Some time later, Selvig gets taken to a SHIELD facility where he
is shown a mysterious blue cube that he is to study. Unbeknownst to Fury,
Selvig is being manipulated by Loki.
Random Trivia/Connections:
•
The prologue takes place in Tonsberg, Norway, so
it's likely that this is when the Tesseract ended up on Earth, since that's
where
Red Skull found it.
•
Though a minor character in this movie, Clint
Barton/Hawkeye makes his first appearance here at the SHIELD facility that was
built around Thor's hammer.
•
Coulsen's activities in this movie occur just
after his departure from Iron Man 2, explaining where he went.
Thoughts:
Not one of my favorites but I do have some highlights. Darcy,
Jane's intern, is my favorite. "You hit him with your car." "You
tased him." "Yeah, I did." She's just so funny and quirky.
Highlight of the movie (and its sequel). Although the development of Thor from
prideful jerk to humble hero was a bit fast, I did enjoy it. It sets the tone
for all of Thor's heroic, selfless acts in the movies that follow. I'm also a
fan of Thor's Asgardian companions. Nice round group of people and they kick
major butt.
Alright, that's all for now. Next week I'm planning something
Disney related. Something nice to celebrate graduating (even though I still
have that one class).
Let's start this thing off with a freebie: Trove. Free to play through Steam, this game is a hybrid of World of Warcraft and Minecraft, without compromising anything in between. You build a character, choose a unique class like Pirate or Necromancer, then explore the world collecting blocks you can turn into building material for some impressive Minecraftesque models. A new update just released for the game so check it out now and see what you can build.
Really they're isn't a Final Fantasy you can go wrong with, but IX is series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's favorite game, as well as Mormon Geek's Joe Meyere's favorite Final Fantasy. The game's graphics have had a slight update since it was first released in 2000. $20.99 is the perfect price for playing this piece of gaming history, especially since now you don't have to switch between four discs like in the old days.
This game is like a recreation of the early days of the church, circa Brigham Young. You have a handful of settlers and winter is coming so you better get busy working or get busy dying. You have to make sure there's enough warm clothes for your people, tools to work with, and room for your people to expand as families grow. You're not building an empire, you're building a small frontier life, which has it's own deeply satisfying rewards to go with it.
