Movies
I really liked the Captain America movie, and it made me actually want to see Thor, so I could get the whole set and appreciate the experiment that Marvel is doing with their movies.
I can't say Thor did it for me like Captain America did. I can't take guys in mysteriously stiff square capes who talk with really awful English accents seriously. At the end, I saw J Michael Straczynski helped write it, and then it made so much sense, since the stuff I couldn't stand in this movie was the same sort of thing I couldn't stand in Babylon 5. I wish there'd been more of Thor on earth, and less of the Asgard stuff. (especially the battle scenes. bo-ring!) If the whole movie was just Thor getting tasered, tranquilized and hit by trucks, I'd be a happy camper.
I'm sure part of my preference for Captain America comes down to the simple fact that Thor is a jock, and Steve Rogers gets beat up by jocks. (Not that Thor necessarily used to beat up the ninety-pound Asgardians, but we don't actually see that he doesn't, do we?) So while it's nice to see the jock realize he's an idiot and change his ways, it's even nicer to see the physically weak guy valued for his inner strength. Captain America's muscles are incidental to his character; they're just a way for him to reach his fullest potential.
There's also the imbalance Thor's movie had, in that the interesting storyline (the intrigue with Loki) took place with Thor mostly offscreen. Thor himself was a catalyst in that drama, but except for the very beginning, not an actor. I thought there were two interesting things going on in the movie: Loki drama in Asgard, and Thor putzing around on Earth eating pancakes. But the twain did not meet, and honestly, I would have preferred more pancakes, more of Thor appreciating his humanity and his inner ninety-pound weakling. (And getting tasered, but I'm a sadist that way.)
But hey, loads of people love this movie, and I like that. Like Captain America, it's got it's own distinct style, and Marvel is doing a good job appealing to a variety of tastes. If one movie doesn't ping my own tastes, that's fine. I think they're doing a great job setting up an interconnected world. In Captain America, the MacGuffin is this glowing blue box. When I saw that I was all, "Glowing blue box? Oooh-kay. Fine, whatever, just keep showing crazy Hugh Jackman drooling over it." Then I saw Thor, where Asgard is full of glowing blue boxes, and I'm all, "Oh, duh. They did get the damned thing from Norway and called it the Cube of Odin or something like that."
Captain America actually made me excited about the Avengers movie, but Thor has lessened that excitement. How are they going to reconcile the styles of all these characters? Iron Man has his glossy glamour, Thor has his plastic Lord of the Rings look, and Captain America's all gritty and muddy. And then they've got the men in black of SHIELD holding them all together. Either there will be awesome fun playing with the juxtapositions, or it will be a hideous crazy-quilt.
I can't say Thor did it for me like Captain America did. I can't take guys in mysteriously stiff square capes who talk with really awful English accents seriously. At the end, I saw J Michael Straczynski helped write it, and then it made so much sense, since the stuff I couldn't stand in this movie was the same sort of thing I couldn't stand in Babylon 5. I wish there'd been more of Thor on earth, and less of the Asgard stuff. (especially the battle scenes. bo-ring!) If the whole movie was just Thor getting tasered, tranquilized and hit by trucks, I'd be a happy camper.
I'm sure part of my preference for Captain America comes down to the simple fact that Thor is a jock, and Steve Rogers gets beat up by jocks. (Not that Thor necessarily used to beat up the ninety-pound Asgardians, but we don't actually see that he doesn't, do we?) So while it's nice to see the jock realize he's an idiot and change his ways, it's even nicer to see the physically weak guy valued for his inner strength. Captain America's muscles are incidental to his character; they're just a way for him to reach his fullest potential.
There's also the imbalance Thor's movie had, in that the interesting storyline (the intrigue with Loki) took place with Thor mostly offscreen. Thor himself was a catalyst in that drama, but except for the very beginning, not an actor. I thought there were two interesting things going on in the movie: Loki drama in Asgard, and Thor putzing around on Earth eating pancakes. But the twain did not meet, and honestly, I would have preferred more pancakes, more of Thor appreciating his humanity and his inner ninety-pound weakling. (And getting tasered, but I'm a sadist that way.)
But hey, loads of people love this movie, and I like that. Like Captain America, it's got it's own distinct style, and Marvel is doing a good job appealing to a variety of tastes. If one movie doesn't ping my own tastes, that's fine. I think they're doing a great job setting up an interconnected world. In Captain America, the MacGuffin is this glowing blue box. When I saw that I was all, "Glowing blue box? Oooh-kay. Fine, whatever, just keep showing crazy Hugh Jackman drooling over it." Then I saw Thor, where Asgard is full of glowing blue boxes, and I'm all, "Oh, duh. They did get the damned thing from Norway and called it the Cube of Odin or something like that."
Captain America actually made me excited about the Avengers movie, but Thor has lessened that excitement. How are they going to reconcile the styles of all these characters? Iron Man has his glossy glamour, Thor has his plastic Lord of the Rings look, and Captain America's all gritty and muddy. And then they've got the men in black of SHIELD holding them all together. Either there will be awesome fun playing with the juxtapositions, or it will be a hideous crazy-quilt.