"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

[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.