“Thor: The Dark World”: If I had a hammer . . .

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“Thor: The Dark World” opens Friday at Point, Eastgate and Star Cinema. PG-13, 1:52, two stars out of four.

Man, the screenwriters of “Thor: The Dark World” must look back with envy on the writers of the first “Iron Man” movie. Times were simpler back then — there wasn’t this whole interconnected Marvel cinematic universe of cameos and post-credit sequences and overlapping plots to pay fealty to. There’s much talk in “The Dark World” of the Nine Realms all coming into alignment for the first time in 5,000 years, but that’s nothing — try and keep nine superhero franchises lined up.

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“About Time”: It’s time travel, actually

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“About Time” opens Friday at Point, Eastgate and Star Cinema. R, 2:03, three stars out of four.

The moment of truth comes early on in writer-director Richard Curtis’ “About Time.” Is he going to be able to sell the audience on the film’s central conceit, that a father (Bill Nighy) and son (Domhnall Gleeson) can travel through time?

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“Let the Fire Burn”: Tempers flare, and Philadelphia burns

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“Let the Fire Burn” screens at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art as part of its Spotlight Cinema series. Not rated, 1:35, three and a half stars out of four.

Jason Osder’s documentary “Let the Fire Burn” opens with what looks like some kind of natural disaster, a massive inferno that engulfed a Philadelphia neighborhood in 1985, destroying 61 homes and killing 11 people, five of them children.

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“Ender’s Game”: A children’s crusade in outer space

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“Ender’s Game” opens Friday in Madison at Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema and Cinema Cafe. PG-13, 1:54, three stars out of four.

“Children in the flower of youth,
Heart in heart, and hand in hand,
Ignorant of what helps or harms,
Without armor, without arms,
Journeying to the Holy Land!”

–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Children’s Crusade”

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“Big Sur”: Life off the road for an older, sadder Jack Kerouac

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“Big Sur” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. R, 1:21, three stars out of four.

Think of “Big Sur” as the counterpoint to Walter Salles’ fevered, rapturous adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” that came earlier this year. Salles’ movie mythologizes Kerouac’s book (and the real-life characters and events that inspired it), as much about the book’s impact on the world as the book itself.

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Blu-ray review: “Byzantium”: Neil Jordan’s follow-up interview with the vampire

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In 1994, director Neil Jordan adapted Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” for the screen. It was elegant and clever, if a little overwrought and overburdened with star power (Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise). But one thing it definitely wasn’t was a horror film. There were no jumps or jolts to be had, but rather a moody, mordant take on the pluses and minuses of immortality.

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