On Thor
I saw Thor yesterday and it was good! Really good, actually. I didn't enjoy it as much as Iron Man because the central character/performance isn't as compelling but that's not to say Chris Hemsworth as Thor is bad. He played the role well and made Thor likeable yet seem of another time and place - he isn't a contemporary man.
It's different to all the other superhero origin stories we're getting because it's not about a man discovering or getting powers - Thor was born with them (right?). Thor's journey is about learning humility and maturing to the point where he is worthy of those powers, understanding the responsibility and the consequences of them. Where other men become superheroes, Thor is a superhero becoming a man.
I haven't read the comics and what I know of the character made me fear that his mythical origins and magical powers wouldn't gel with the technology based universe that Marvel set up in Iron Man. But they did a really good job of making Thor's abilities not seem hokey, drawing on Arthur C. Clarke to raise the idea that magic is science they don't understand yet.
I thought it was paced and structured well, though the transitions from Earth to Asgard were occasionally slightly jarring. The CGI for the most part was really impressive, with the ice creatures very convincing. Branagh used a lot of tilted angles and quick cuts during the fight scenes and it would have been nice to see the camera pull back and remain steady so that you could really appreciate them, but you could still tell what was going on - it wasn't all shaky cam a la the later Bourne movies. I'd need to see it again with a more critical eye to really judge the direction but I think Branagh did a good job overall.
I think he certainly pulled good performances from the actors. I've been having trouble with Natalie Portman lately but she was really charming here. Anthony Hopkins does kingly gravitas well and in other news the sky is blue. There was quite a lot of humour in the script to, some of it physical, but mostly good jokes delivered well.
As for the characters, there were so many good ones! Especially the women! The movie passes the Bechdel test in the first two minutes, I promise. In the comics Jane Foster (Portman) is a nurse but here she's an astrophysicist which I think was a really good change because it ties her storyline to Thor's for reasons other than she fancies him. She's shown to be passionate about her career, intelligent, and kind of a dork - I really liked her. She's aided and abetted by her assisstant Darcy (Kat Dennings) and guys, I really love Darcy and want to write fic about her. She's mostly there for comedic relief but she still comes across as a normal person. When she sees a huge guy yelling in the desert who appears to be crazy, she tasers him! Smart girl.
And then there is Sif, who is one of Thor's friends and a badass warrior. There's a moment early in the film that I really like where Thor is asking all his friends in a light-hearted manner about all the things he's done for them and all male friends reply "You did [that awesome thing that helped me]." When he gets to Sif he asks who proved that women could be warriors and just as tough as men? And she says "I did." He shoots back with "True, but I supported you!" I've learnt that in the comics she's sometimes a love interest of Thor's but they didn't really play on that, just showing them as good friends and her as one of the guys. Sometimes its just nice to have female characters who aren't shown to be in a romantic relationship with one of the gang.
I'm not super invested in Thor/Jane, though I like them fine. Would read fic but don't feel rabid about it. I would really like to read about Sif/Hogun which was sparked by the tiniest of moments when they were fighting together.
Idris Elba as Heimdall was really good, very noble and stoic. I've been a fan of Tom Hiddleston for a while and his Loki was complex. Shame about what they did to his hair, though (black and straight where it's normally blonde and curly. His fan community on LJ is called magnificenthair for a reason!) I thought Loki was a really good villain in that he wasn't evil but he had issues that compelled him to act that way: feeling different all his life but not knowing he was actually one of those frost people, feeling betrayed by his parents but also wanting to prove himself to them. And the thing is, in the beginning he's right, Thor wouldn't be a good king. Thor's path to humility seemed a bit quick to me - I would have liked to see him spend more time adjusting to Earth. But as he didn't need to be completely redeemed, just learn a lesson, I'm ok with it.
I loved seeing Phil Coulson again, agent of SHIELD. He seemed slightly more dour/stuck-up here than in Iron Man but he was still wonderfully dry. I also got really excited over Jeremy Renner's cameo as Hawkeye. They establish him as already a member of SHIELD and he seemed to be wearing black military fatigues, rather than a cape. He did wield a bow, though.
Final verdict: fun and entertaining. It may not have a whole lot of depth but it's not shallow and you won't feel stupider for seeing it.
It's different to all the other superhero origin stories we're getting because it's not about a man discovering or getting powers - Thor was born with them (right?). Thor's journey is about learning humility and maturing to the point where he is worthy of those powers, understanding the responsibility and the consequences of them. Where other men become superheroes, Thor is a superhero becoming a man.
I haven't read the comics and what I know of the character made me fear that his mythical origins and magical powers wouldn't gel with the technology based universe that Marvel set up in Iron Man. But they did a really good job of making Thor's abilities not seem hokey, drawing on Arthur C. Clarke to raise the idea that magic is science they don't understand yet.
I thought it was paced and structured well, though the transitions from Earth to Asgard were occasionally slightly jarring. The CGI for the most part was really impressive, with the ice creatures very convincing. Branagh used a lot of tilted angles and quick cuts during the fight scenes and it would have been nice to see the camera pull back and remain steady so that you could really appreciate them, but you could still tell what was going on - it wasn't all shaky cam a la the later Bourne movies. I'd need to see it again with a more critical eye to really judge the direction but I think Branagh did a good job overall.
I think he certainly pulled good performances from the actors. I've been having trouble with Natalie Portman lately but she was really charming here. Anthony Hopkins does kingly gravitas well and in other news the sky is blue. There was quite a lot of humour in the script to, some of it physical, but mostly good jokes delivered well.
As for the characters, there were so many good ones! Especially the women! The movie passes the Bechdel test in the first two minutes, I promise. In the comics Jane Foster (Portman) is a nurse but here she's an astrophysicist which I think was a really good change because it ties her storyline to Thor's for reasons other than she fancies him. She's shown to be passionate about her career, intelligent, and kind of a dork - I really liked her. She's aided and abetted by her assisstant Darcy (Kat Dennings) and guys, I really love Darcy and want to write fic about her. She's mostly there for comedic relief but she still comes across as a normal person. When she sees a huge guy yelling in the desert who appears to be crazy, she tasers him! Smart girl.
And then there is Sif, who is one of Thor's friends and a badass warrior. There's a moment early in the film that I really like where Thor is asking all his friends in a light-hearted manner about all the things he's done for them and all male friends reply "You did [that awesome thing that helped me]." When he gets to Sif he asks who proved that women could be warriors and just as tough as men? And she says "I did." He shoots back with "True, but I supported you!" I've learnt that in the comics she's sometimes a love interest of Thor's but they didn't really play on that, just showing them as good friends and her as one of the guys. Sometimes its just nice to have female characters who aren't shown to be in a romantic relationship with one of the gang.
I'm not super invested in Thor/Jane, though I like them fine. Would read fic but don't feel rabid about it. I would really like to read about Sif/Hogun which was sparked by the tiniest of moments when they were fighting together.
Idris Elba as Heimdall was really good, very noble and stoic. I've been a fan of Tom Hiddleston for a while and his Loki was complex. Shame about what they did to his hair, though (black and straight where it's normally blonde and curly. His fan community on LJ is called magnificenthair for a reason!) I thought Loki was a really good villain in that he wasn't evil but he had issues that compelled him to act that way: feeling different all his life but not knowing he was actually one of those frost people, feeling betrayed by his parents but also wanting to prove himself to them. And the thing is, in the beginning he's right, Thor wouldn't be a good king. Thor's path to humility seemed a bit quick to me - I would have liked to see him spend more time adjusting to Earth. But as he didn't need to be completely redeemed, just learn a lesson, I'm ok with it.
I loved seeing Phil Coulson again, agent of SHIELD. He seemed slightly more dour/stuck-up here than in Iron Man but he was still wonderfully dry. I also got really excited over Jeremy Renner's cameo as Hawkeye. They establish him as already a member of SHIELD and he seemed to be wearing black military fatigues, rather than a cape. He did wield a bow, though.
Final verdict: fun and entertaining. It may not have a whole lot of depth but it's not shallow and you won't feel stupider for seeing it.