Thor 2: The Dark World
For those interested, there was no Captain America at all prior to Thor 2 at the IMAX 3D showing today. I don't know if that's common to all IMAX or just to the AMC IMAX, but FYI. Also, among what trailers they did show were one of the same ones I saw last night (involving fast cars, a white dude, and major manpain probably involving the lone female in the trailer getting killed off in the first five minutes) were Robocop, which I was aware of, and I, Frankenstein, featuring Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, and Yvonne Strahovski???? This is the first I've heard of this. I have no idea where this particular version of Frankenstein comes from, as it seems to feature a scarred-yet-still-handsome Frankenstein and... angels and gargoyles? I think? Lots of wings and flying, anyway. I have my doubts, but I admit that Yvonne plus the wings and such made me curious where Aaron Eckhart being badass alone would not have. Anyone know anything about this?
As for Thor 2, let's get the stuff I didn't like out of the way first.
1) What a waste of great acting talent: both Christopher Eccleston and Alice Krige are in this thing, but CE is so buried under makeup and his voice so buried under voice effects that I'm not sure if I would've recognized him if I hadn't known he was in it. As for Alice Krige, I think she had five minutes of screentime total. I'm not sure what the point was of having her in there except I guess they wanted someone awesome to play Eir, the Norse goddess/Valkyrie of healing? I don't even know. For those who may have missed her, she was in two scenes: she was the main healer in the scene where Jane was with the medical types, and she was briefly on screen at the funeral, letting one of the balls of light go. That was it. She barely even had lines. I don't even know.
2) Frigga getting fridged. I get why they did it that way, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. Couldn't they have had her hovering near death with an uncertain recovery for awhile? Surely Loki would still want to avenge her? Of course, that wouldn't have netted them their nifty funeral scene, so I guess not. *eyeroll*
3) The way they handled Erik Selvig's PTSD and associated issues. Although I did appreciate there allowing him to both have issues and still be right about everything, I didn't appreciate him being the main source of "humor" in the movie.
On to everything else, I thought the first movie was great; I thought this one was even better. What did I like?
1) I actually liked the battle/action/Star-Wars-y stuff. A lot of the time, the action scenes feel like they get too drawn out and the folks in charge get a little too invested in how cool the action scene is. I didn't feel like that was a problem here, and very much enjoyed all the special effects (and for once appreciated the 3D for this).
2) I liked Loki. I still want to smack him upside the head until he got why the many things he's done were wrong, but I regained a bit of sympathy for him that I lost in Avengers. But only a bit. He's still a self-obsessed, self-pitying twerp who blames everyone but himself for the trouble he lands himself in. But I'm glad he wasn't really dead, in the end (not that I expected him to be), and I want to believe that he didn't know he was going to survive so that whole scene with him and Thor is real. But he probably used his illusion powers to fake a lot, so I'm probably being naive. :-) But I loved seeing the relationship between he and Frigga, and he and Thor. Loved that little scene on the ship with Thor where he teases Thor about Frigga not being surprised that they're fighting. And I loved that they came up with that fake-out. I find myself very curious what he'll do in the throne, and I find myself torn on whether I want him to have actually killed Odin or just stashed him someplace.
3) Jane Foster. OK, yes, she didn't get a whole lot to do in the middle of the movie, but I loved how much a part of saving the world she was at the end. Based on Erik's work, yes, but she was the one who was mostly running the show and figuring things out at the end. And I still feel like they got a little too committed to each other a little too fast in the first movie, but I do like Jane and Thor together. And I enjoyed seeing her learn about Asgard and meet Heimdall, Odin and Frigga. ETA: Oh, and I can hardly believe I forgot this, but I adored that she slapped both Thor and Loki. Hah.
4) Thor. I have always liked Thor more than a lot of people, aside from the first quarter or so of the first movie where I want to smack the arrogant smirk off his face. In this movie, he gets to prove that he has a brain and can plan things. He appears to have planned out the whole escape from Asgard thing, and I bet he had already thought of the majority of the fakeout plan with Loki. He's not shouty, either, like so many fanfics would have us believe (I can deal with a certain amount of shouty Thor in fanfic, but all too often it goes over the top). And even if he no longer trusts Loki, he still loves him, and still wants to be able to.
Anyway, I liked it, but not so much that I'm likely to see it more than the two times I already have before it comes out on DVD. Although now that Jane's met Odin and Frigga, I rather want Thor to meet her mother, especially since I think Darcy said they're staying in her house? Someone want to write that fanfic?
Also, if anyone's confused about what the first post-trailer scene was all about, Vulture's got the scoop. Warning for spoilers for future Marvel films.
This entry was originally posted at http://beck-liz.dreamwidth.org/1017359.html. You may comment there using OpenID, or you may comment here.
have commented there.
As for Thor 2, let's get the stuff I didn't like out of the way first.
1) What a waste of great acting talent: both Christopher Eccleston and Alice Krige are in this thing, but CE is so buried under makeup and his voice so buried under voice effects that I'm not sure if I would've recognized him if I hadn't known he was in it. As for Alice Krige, I think she had five minutes of screentime total. I'm not sure what the point was of having her in there except I guess they wanted someone awesome to play Eir, the Norse goddess/Valkyrie of healing? I don't even know. For those who may have missed her, she was in two scenes: she was the main healer in the scene where Jane was with the medical types, and she was briefly on screen at the funeral, letting one of the balls of light go. That was it. She barely even had lines. I don't even know.
2) Frigga getting fridged. I get why they did it that way, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. Couldn't they have had her hovering near death with an uncertain recovery for awhile? Surely Loki would still want to avenge her? Of course, that wouldn't have netted them their nifty funeral scene, so I guess not. *eyeroll*
3) The way they handled Erik Selvig's PTSD and associated issues. Although I did appreciate there allowing him to both have issues and still be right about everything, I didn't appreciate him being the main source of "humor" in the movie.
On to everything else, I thought the first movie was great; I thought this one was even better. What did I like?
1) I actually liked the battle/action/Star-Wars-y stuff. A lot of the time, the action scenes feel like they get too drawn out and the folks in charge get a little too invested in how cool the action scene is. I didn't feel like that was a problem here, and very much enjoyed all the special effects (and for once appreciated the 3D for this).
2) I liked Loki. I still want to smack him upside the head until he got why the many things he's done were wrong, but I regained a bit of sympathy for him that I lost in Avengers. But only a bit. He's still a self-obsessed, self-pitying twerp who blames everyone but himself for the trouble he lands himself in. But I'm glad he wasn't really dead, in the end (not that I expected him to be), and I want to believe that he didn't know he was going to survive so that whole scene with him and Thor is real. But he probably used his illusion powers to fake a lot, so I'm probably being naive. :-) But I loved seeing the relationship between he and Frigga, and he and Thor. Loved that little scene on the ship with Thor where he teases Thor about Frigga not being surprised that they're fighting. And I loved that they came up with that fake-out. I find myself very curious what he'll do in the throne, and I find myself torn on whether I want him to have actually killed Odin or just stashed him someplace.
3) Jane Foster. OK, yes, she didn't get a whole lot to do in the middle of the movie, but I loved how much a part of saving the world she was at the end. Based on Erik's work, yes, but she was the one who was mostly running the show and figuring things out at the end. And I still feel like they got a little too committed to each other a little too fast in the first movie, but I do like Jane and Thor together. And I enjoyed seeing her learn about Asgard and meet Heimdall, Odin and Frigga. ETA: Oh, and I can hardly believe I forgot this, but I adored that she slapped both Thor and Loki. Hah.
4) Thor. I have always liked Thor more than a lot of people, aside from the first quarter or so of the first movie where I want to smack the arrogant smirk off his face. In this movie, he gets to prove that he has a brain and can plan things. He appears to have planned out the whole escape from Asgard thing, and I bet he had already thought of the majority of the fakeout plan with Loki. He's not shouty, either, like so many fanfics would have us believe (I can deal with a certain amount of shouty Thor in fanfic, but all too often it goes over the top). And even if he no longer trusts Loki, he still loves him, and still wants to be able to.
Anyway, I liked it, but not so much that I'm likely to see it more than the two times I already have before it comes out on DVD. Although now that Jane's met Odin and Frigga, I rather want Thor to meet her mother, especially since I think Darcy said they're staying in her house? Someone want to write that fanfic?
Also, if anyone's confused about what the first post-trailer scene was all about, Vulture's got the scoop. Warning for spoilers for future Marvel films.
This entry was originally posted at http://beck-liz.dreamwidth.org/1017359.html. You may comment there using OpenID, or you may comment here.
have commented there.