"Thor": I say thee YAY!

[thehefner]

I loved Thor. Loved, loved, loved it.

Now, it wasn't perfect. There was some serious Dutch Angle abuse (and you know it's bad when the photo on the Wikipedia entry for Dutch Angle is from Battlefield Earth), and I'm not sure how satisfying Thor's character arc was, plus I'm sure I'll notice more flaws upon revisiting the film. Which I plan to do. Several times.

I'm so glad I avoided reading any reviews, raves though they were. I went into this with very few expectations. I did my best to ignore the headlines that hyperbolically raved "Best superhero film since The Dark Knight/Iron Man/Blankman, etc!" because I already knew that this would (or at least should) be a different beast entirely. Only fools would compare them on the same level, as if all DC and Marvel superhero properties were the same. But even geeks make that mistake, it seems.

Ughhh, I'm crashing hard, and we still have a lot to accomplish IRL over here with rehearsal and packing up. I'm lacking the energy to give it a proper review right now, so I'll leave that for the comments. If you've seen the film, chime in with your thoughts! And if not, you'd best avoid reading the comments. I'm not gonna be able to hold back with certain things which made me giddy in ways that probably earned me weird looks from all the normal people in the movie theater.

So yeah, SPOILERS to follow in comments.

Comments

[mandybling.livejournal.com]

I need to see this.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes you do.

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

The giant billboard proclaiming "...JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY!" made me cackle loudly in the theatre -- no one else did, but that was okay. X3

[torberg.livejournal.com]

Same here! I saw it and burst out laughing while everyone else was quiet. It's one of the wonderfully subtle continuity jokes for the fans.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Henchgirl and I both missed that! Damn! Something to look out for next time.

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure you can spot it during the first aerial shot of the town -- it says something like, "Adventure into the unknown ...Journey into Mystery!"

[oddityangel.livejournal.com]

I'm about to head to bed, but I just wanted to mention how pretty I thought the movie was. Asgard wasn't your typical fantasy setting (too much of an appropriate alien sci-fi feel), and I loved it. I was pleasantly surprised by the film.

[jackolantern.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that it really hit the sweet spot between fidelity to the original Kirby designs and that magical/celestial/medieval look. In particular, the costume designs were kind of ingenious.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Seeing Kirbytech in action was such a thrill, right up to the _____ ______ in the post-credits sequence. Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

I don't have anything to add, other than agreeing with all of this. I talked my Shakespeare fan Mom into seeing this one by pointing out that Kenneth Branagh directed it, and she actually enjoyed it.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I think this is one that's going to appeal to a much wider audience than most other superhero films. It'll be interesting to see the impact it has and the following it gains over the weeks and months.

[deadwalrus.livejournal.com]

Hell, I've been studying Shakespeare for 18 out of 20 years that I've been alive, and Branagh did exactly the job I would've done. The key, I think, is to recognise that the characters should be drawn from Shakespeare, not the dialogue. Volstagg is basically Falstaff minus the gratuitous cowardice, Loki has the 'lean and hungry look' of Cassius combined with the moral dithering of Brutus and the political ambition of Macbeth, Thor is Prince Hal forced to grow up into Henry the Fifth, Odin is King Duncan and Henry the Fourth, and so on...

Give or take, a little, of course. You can trace a lot of stuff back to Shakespeare plots (or perhaps they both originate from the same primeval proto-plots) - I'd waste time and space explaining how Pulp Fiction is The Tempest in a different order, and it should be obvious how Tropic Thunder recalls the Mechanicals of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's just a little more obvious in Thor's case because of the director.

[greedyslayer.livejournal.com]

Such a good movie. Loved Loki.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

LOVED Loki. Henchgirl wishes he'd been more smirky, and I have to admit, I missed the smirky bastard. But I adored him nonetheless.

Do you think he was planning for that grand scheme from the start? I was tempted to take him at his word that he let the Frost Giants into Asgard for the pure mischievous fun of ruining Thor's big day, and that his major heel turn didn't occur until he realized that he was the stolen son of the Frost Giant king. Henchgirl disagreed and thought that, no, Loki had this all planned from the start. I think that's probably the case, but I like to think that he just started off in pure Mischief God form, and it went downhill from there once the truth about himself was revealed.

[jackolantern.livejournal.com]

I vote for "he let the frost giants in for shit and giggles and the rest was fortuitous".

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Oh good, so I'm not the only one. I think that way gives him way more of an actual character arc, going back to what you mentioned below.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

[greedyslayer.livejournal.com]

I was tempted to take him at his word that he let the Frost Giants into Asgard for the pure mischievous fun of ruining Thor's big day, and that his major heel turn didn't occur until he realized that he was the stolen son of the Frost Giant king.

More inclined to think this, since as you mention below, more of a character arc. And it just seemed to match what I was seeing on screen, there was something complex and developing going on with Loki. Though I kinda like how I'm still a little mystified--how much was Loki genuine or calculating, shifting or planned in advance, what were the details of his motivations? But I still go for the even more complicated path, with it starting more simply for the LULZ--but Loki didn't intend for Thor to be banished, or to learn about his origins, which really sets him off and just everything spirals out of control. Perhaps I shall blame Harvey for my interest in characters spiraling out of control into the abyss.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

From what I recall on seeing the film just once, I think the biggest scene to indicate that he was scheming it all along was his whole, "Y'know what, Thor? I think you were absolutely right, those frost giants SHOULD get their blue butts kicked!" But far as I'm concerned, even that doesn't make his motivations cut and dried.

*threadjack*

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

I kinda read that as it's just Loki's nature to cause trouble, and while he might have wanted Thor to get into more shit (and possibly delay him from the throne), I think outright war was out of the question right then. His reaction to the giants when they first meet-- the "oh shit, we're boned, let's leave!" specifically --makes me think he'd had other plans that got ruined by Thor's pig-headedness.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

There was something about seeing all the damn capes in this movie, and the fact that the capes were put to use that really pleased me on a level i didn't even know i wanted to be pleased on. It was just nice to see superheroes (god type though they were) flying around wearing capes. Yeah batman has a cape and all, but, not in anyway that really does anything for the nolan films. it's just sort of there. The capes in this movie added this sense of regal wonder and it struck this really primal, childhood chord of what a superhero looks like and is and does in my head. There was a lot about this movie that I enjoyed on a very basic 5 year old who loves superheros and especially superman level. The characters were there, and the worlds were so solidly built, and asgard looked so cool, and thor flew. and he flew with natalie portman, and it got natalie portman hot. And This movie had such a warmth to it. This movie was not cynical, and dark and brooding, it was fun, it was warm, it was endearing. No one seemed flat. Slightly cliched, maybe, but no one seemed 1 dimensional. I had no expectations for this movie going in and secretly feared that it would be as forgettable as the second hulk movie was, but it wasn't. It was fun, and melodramatic and exciting and it made me feel like a little kid watching superman with my dad. It reminded me of the basic reasons I love superheros in the first place, which is not something I get very often these days.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

So very, very true. Really, it just added so much on a visceral level, just to watch Thor and Loki WALK. That's the kind of cape magic I'd want to see on Superman. Ironically, they're probably going to do the same stupid thing as they did for Superman Returns (and what they're now doing for Smallville) and make the reds too dark. Thor's cape with bright, awesome, comic-book-RED.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

I don't even want to think about the new superman. They lost me the moment they cast a british actor to play superman. that movie officially does not exist to me.

[jackolantern.livejournal.com]

I was especially pleased with Loki. Tom Hiddleston really has the much more interesting character arc, and I'm glad that he seems to have a role in the franchise in the future.

Also, has anyone else seen the Incredible Hulk TV movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095368/) that was supposed to be a pilot for a potential Thor TV series, back in the 80s? The scene with Thor and Dr. Selvig in the bar reminded me a lot of that.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I thought Thor himself was fantastic, but I'm not sure his own character arc was carried through convincingly.

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

Coming at this film as someone who is totally unfamiliar with the comics and really didn't know what to expect, I was so giddy over what I saw as them respecting the original myths and gods. Especially Loki!~ I was like, 'BUT LOKI IS BEING SENSIBLE--WAIT NO LOKI Y U SUCH A BASTARDFACE--WAIT MAYBE NOT--*GASP* LOKI YOU BASTARD' 8D And Thor! I KNOW PEOPLE LIKE THOR. THAT WAS AWESOME. He's the most compelling main character I've seen in a film, possibly ever.

My only problem was that of the four female characters, only the Queen was at all compelling or interesting. The other three women were just boring, and every time they came on screen I was like, 'YOU ARE BORING. QUIT BEING BORING AND LET OTHER MORE INTERESTING PEOPLE TALK'. There was just no charisma from any of those actresses, no presence, no command of the stage (if you will).