PMA&C 5 Star Review: Thor: Love and Thunder

The Portland Martial Arts & Crafts 5 Star Movie Review is a new segment on my blog. My reviews will all be five star reviews. Why? Because there’s enough negativity in the world, and I don’t want to add to it. Some will be old movies, some will be new movies, most will be movies I just watched. Reviews will likely be shockingly incomplete and rather self-centered. Now, on to our first review!

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Thor: Love and Thunder

Rating: Five Stars

First of all, Natalie Portman’s arms look amazing in this movie. I mean, her shoulders are just beautiful and muscular in a way that tells me she’s put in her hours at the gym. As The Mighty Thor, she wields the hammer with gusto and ferocity. Natalie Portman is who I would pick to play me in a movie about my life, so I’m very pleased to see that she is committing to movies where she gets to show off her increasing martial arts skills.

The jokes in this movie are so silly. They’re often goofy little quips, wacky wordplay, or funny misunderstandings, which are really delightful types of humor. I am happy to see that this film isn’t resorting only to explosions and seriousness to entertain its audience like so many other terrible superhero movies do.

If I could make one wish for anything in the world, it would be for a pet pegasus. In Thor: Love and Thunder, Tessa Thompson’s character Valkyrie has a glorious pegasus she rides in on in one scene. (Technically it is a winged horse — I do believe “Pegasus” is the name of a particular winged horse, the one born from Medusa’s head, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I call her steed a pegasus.) Anyway, the CGI was just WONDERFUL when she rode in on her pegasus. The wingspan was HUGE like it oughta be in order for such a large animal to fly. It was beautiful, and made me want a pegasus even more. Well done, Thor: Love and Thunder.

So there you have it, folks. Gorgeous arms? Check. Funny jokes? Check. Glorious pegasus? Check. Thor: Love and Thunder has it all.

The First Monday

Today is the first Monday my kids are back in school. I drop them off, go on a Trader Joe’s run, then come back home and relax a bit. Next I go to the coffee shop, where I hand my writing partner/barista J the Sunday New York Times Book Review, and get an iced coffee and banana chocolate muffin.

I sit at my table on the coffee shop patio alone. So grateful to be alone. So relieved that my kids are back in full-time school.

I listen to music, email an old friend, and work on an illustration for tomorrow’s post, which I also plan to post to Instagram. That post will be my first PMA&C (Portland Martial Arts & Crafts) movie review.

Right now about ten people read my blog every day– I see the stats before I log on. I’m curious to find out what will happen when I direct a little traffic here from my Instagram.

Stats!

I will keep you posted, dear reader.

Burnout

I get burned out on being a mom sometimes. Then I feel bad that I’m burned out, and try to power through, but then I get more burned out. And then if I keep going, I’m likely to explode.

I’m trying to notice the burnout feeling early and take a break before the “about to explode” feeling happens.

Tonight I exploded.

I screamed in frustration.

Then my husband asked me to take a break.

Then I took a break. In the future, I’d like to take the break BEFORE the explosion. I can explode while I’m on my break: I can swing on the swings, sing, hit things, run, move, dance.

Healthy explosions.