My apartment sits literally five minutes walking distance from a cheap, first-run theater. As such, I have made use of it quite a bit in my one month of living here. I thought, perhaps, I could give some quick thoughts on the movies I have watched there.

Thor

I know pretty much nothing about the Marvel universe (outside of what I've seen in movies), so I went into Thor with no idea of what to expect. It has a much different tone than previous Marvel movies, a feeling I attribute to the source material being more based on Norse mythos as opposed to straight up sci-fi. It was an enjoyable film, but not near as awesome as the first Iron Man. - 7/10

Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides

It's no secret that after the first movie, the Pirates series began tanking. The third I watched once, a bootleg copy on a tiny computer monitor at a friend's house. I wasn't really paying attention. This movie has so much shit going on and I don't even really give a damn about it. Of course, we're never given a reason to give a damn or even much explanation of what the hell is going on that a damn should be given about. I liked Barbossa (kind of), but that Jack Sparrow shtick is getting old... - 4/10

Kung Fu Panda 2

The fact that I would really enjoyed the first Kung Fu Panda was something I had never anticipated. So, when they came around with a sequel I had much the same feelings as the first except mixed in with a "aww... don't ruin what you've done so well." Luckily, KFP2 is very much on par with the first, balancing the story, visuals and comedy quite excellently. Some of action sequences are pretty freaking amazing, too. I will say that the very, very end does seemingly kind of negate the core part of the film, but that can be overlooked. This will be my Oscar hopeful for next year's Best Animated Film category. - 9/10

X-men: First Class

X-men 3 sucked. Wolverine, which I just watch a couple nights ago, wasn't terrible but didn't capture the feeling of the first two. I'm not entirely sure why, but I didn't even realize First Class was a thing until practically the day I saw it. And, surprisingly, it's really good. It has that same X-men feel of the first couple of films even while the mutants this time around are kind of wimpy (a guy who can fly by screaming? Okay, then...) Supposedly this is supposed to be a reboot, but I see it as a "we're not going to acknowledge those last couple of films and try again". I mean, First Class opens with the exact same shots as the first film, how could it not be connected?

Super 8

Just watched this one tonight, actually, so my thoughts are fresh. Super 8 is a J.J. Abrams production with the backing of Stephen Spielberg. That's all you really need to know. Mash up Goonies and ET, both excellent films in their own right, toss in a little J.J. Abrams lens flare and monsterness and you have Super 8. It's not bad, but it's nothing earth shattering either. Also, and I feel Michael Giacchino really phoned in his score for this film as I swear it was lifted right out of LOST. Seriously Abrams, you're not the shit so stop pretending to be.

So, there you are. I'm sure there will be plenty more movies that I will see soon enough and perhaps force my hand on reviewing things.