The summer movie season kicked off for me this weekend. What that means for me is getting together with my brothers for whatever big tentpole movie is in theaters at the time. This weekend it was Thor (2011, directed by Kenneth Branagh). I'm sure we'll get together again for Captain America later this summer, and probably a bunch of other fanboy-targeted movies as well. Having "event" movies like this as a gathering point makes the experience of watching these kinds of movies more pleasurable than they might be otherwise. I've become very disillusioned with franchise movies lately, because I can't say that watching the multiplexes turn into an upscale version of a comic book shop makes me happy. "Regular" movies have been squeezed to the margins by these kinds of movies, just as every genre but superheroes have been pushed off the shelves in most comics shops. None of this is Thor's fault, really, and, as I say, it's an excuse to visit with my family. I come from a family of comics geeks, so if I can dissociate the comics geek in me from the movie geek, I can enjoy these outings, but it's hard for me to feel the kind of movie-drunk glee I used to feel during past summers.
As I say, none of this can be laid at Thor's feet. On its own terms, it's not bad at all, but I had this weird epiphantic moment about halfway through the movie: I would watch a movie that consisted of nothing but Jane Foster and her friends working. I found myself digging the "girlfriend" character a LOT more than I did the ostensible hero of the piece. But I'm getting ahead of myself...