CHICAGO – It began with a boy and his dream (nightmare?). John LaFlamboy, to be exact, as he took an idea he had in college and made it his life’s work. He owns and operates the HellsGate Haunted House in Lockport (Illinois), which was designed, built and put together by Haunted House experts expressly for the spookiest month of the year. For info on how to purchase tickets, click HellsGate.
Film Review: Forced ‘Thor: The Dark World’ Sequel Lacks Passion, Sci-Fi Basis



CHICAGO – For me and the subculture as a whole, so much of science fiction came from “Star Trek”. If creator Gene Roddenberry were alive today to witness “Thor: The Dark World,” he’d tell it to focus on being a superhero film rather than failing to dabble in science fiction.
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Accidentally slipping into nine dimensional realms with no ability to control the warp feels like sci-fi peppered in for dramatic effect without any logical basis in actual science fiction. While a key plot line of this film is that nine realms are converging, sci-fi is best left for programs that have a true understanding and basis in it.
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Failed sci-fi aside, what we have here is a barely passable sequel because of the rest of what it is rather than what it fails to be. From high-budget Marvel movies, we’ve come to expect the ability to glaze our eyes over and shut our brains down as we pop popcorn in our mouth, sip on a bucket of soda and bite off strawberry licorice.
We can with “Thor: The Dark World” while being relatively satisfied that the story’s lore has been furthered since the Chris Hemsworth show two years ago. Just don’t overthink things too much – and accept this popcorn flick for all that it is – because that’s where the film will fall apart. For example, Thor can spin his hammer fast enough and fly like Superman as if it allows him to helicopter. That’s about the most ridiculous Norse mythology I’ve ever witnessed.


Image credit: Marvel Studios

Dude, it’s a movie based on a
Dude, it’s a movie based on a comic book…it’s not based on science. If anything, the Thor stuff was based on magic and mystical things. Get over it and go watch old Star Trek re-runs. Comic book movies aren’t for you.