Last weekend we watched all of the existing Marvel comic-book-superhero movies as preparation. Note that in general I find comic book plots kinda amazingly stupid and eye-rolling, so I have to be in the mood for cheese to sit through these movies. In order of goodness, best to worst:
* Thor: compelling villain with believable conflict & motivations; the only one of these movies to feature acting instead of mugging at the camera
* Iron Man 1: RDJ plays himself, but it's entertaining and charming; marred by muddled politics
* Captain America: a waste of Hugo Weaving; loltastic idiotic comic-book portrayal of WWII that failed various believability tests; predictable script that had us calling out events before they happened; almost saved by a pleasantly beefy male lead with an earnest anti-bullying message
* Iron Man 2: a completely tedious retread of the first Iron Man movie, featuring more RDJ mugging at the camera being a star; almost saved by the Tony/Pepper smooch
I didn't watch The Hulk because I had had enough stupidity for one weekend. Mr P liked it. Am I to understand His Nortonness doesn't play Bruce Banner in the new movie?