Ever since X-Men came out over a decade ago, Marvel's been pumping out films on a regular basis. They haven't all been winners (Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four, etc.), but there have been only two that when they were announced, I thought, "Is this really a good idea?" The first one was Man-Thing, which went straight to DVD. The other one was Thor.
There's something just profoundly uninteresting about the character. Granted, I say that as someone who's read maybe three issues of Thor in my entire life, and only a handful of Avengers comics he appeared in. But at no point have I ever thought that this is a character who needed to have his own movie. Twenty years ago, Thor appeared in one of the Incredible Hulk TV movies, and it was pretty much a train wreck. That's more or less what I expected here.
I was sort of wrong. Thor isn't a great movie, but it gets by on sheer enthusiasm, if nothing else. And it sure looks pretty.
Spoilers follow...
The Good:
-- The casting. I love the fact that aside from Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins (and the various actors making cameos), pretty much everyone in the film is either an unknown or a "Hey, it's that guy!"-type actor. Even better, they're actually really good. I mean, this stuff isn't exactly Shakespeare. You need people who can play roles that require ridiculous costumes and dialogue and do so convincingly. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston somehow manage to get through all their lines without once coming off as campy.
-- Hawkeye. This is the benefit of staying away from spoilers. I knew Jeremey Renner would be playing the character in The Avengers, but I had no idea he'd be introduced here. (And when you consider how many movie sites seem to have decided news like that doesn't count as a spoiler, I'm amazed I missed it.) When you see the hand grab the purple bow, I think half the theater had a geekgasm. Not to be confused with an actual orgasm, which I'm almost positive the woman behind me had when Hemsworth was walking around with his shirt off.
-- The special effects. CGI has gotten to the point where I'm not even sure how much it's possible to improve on it going forward. Asgard looks that good. The best thing that ever happened to Marvel was the film rights to its various properties being tied up through the 1990s. Imagine if they'd tried something as ambitious as Iron Man or Thor back then. The effects would look ghastly compared to now.
-- I finally learned how to pronounce Mjolnir! Okay, this isn't something that's weighed heavily on my mind. But when I actually heard it said correctly, I realized that whenever I've read a comic where Thor appeared, I'd been subconsciously reading it as Ma-jawl-nir. So I'm not big on Norse mythology. Sue me. Unfortunately, Kat Dennings' character immediately started pronouncing it as meow-meow, which is now stuck in my head.
The Bad:
-- The plot. I'm not sure it could have been more by-the-numbers. Worse, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. Thor proves he's worthy to wield meow-meow--I mean, Mjolnir--by being willing to sacrifice his life to protect innocent people? Is there any reason to think he wouldn't have done that beforehand, even before he was exiled? Everyone in Asgard seemed to think he was a pretty stand-up guy. A little impetuous, and maybe rude to his father. But a good, loyal friend. I'm not sure what lesson was learned here.
-- The romantic subplot. Look, most, if not all, human beings would agree Natalie Portman is pretty hot. But when you come from a race of (mostly) physically perfect Norse gods, I'm not sure she's that hot. I definitely didn't buy Thor promising to come back for her after knowing her for all of two days.
The Ugly:
-- The post-credits scene. We've had four of these now in the Marvel film universe: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 and now Thor. It was cool at first. Tony Stark walking into his living room and finding Nick Fury? Awesome. But ever since then, the gimmick's been providing diminishing returns. The bit at the end of The Incredible Hulk had a Stark cameo. Iron Man 2 introduced Mjolnir. Thor introduced the Cosmic Cube. It just seems like they've devolved into a series of, "Hey, this'll get the fanboys all hot and bothered!" moments. Which...okay, I guess, but if you're going to make people sit through the entire closing credits, it'd be nice if these scenes were a bit more substantive.
There's something just profoundly uninteresting about the character. Granted, I say that as someone who's read maybe three issues of Thor in my entire life, and only a handful of Avengers comics he appeared in. But at no point have I ever thought that this is a character who needed to have his own movie. Twenty years ago, Thor appeared in one of the Incredible Hulk TV movies, and it was pretty much a train wreck. That's more or less what I expected here.
I was sort of wrong. Thor isn't a great movie, but it gets by on sheer enthusiasm, if nothing else. And it sure looks pretty.
Spoilers follow...
The Good:
-- The casting. I love the fact that aside from Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins (and the various actors making cameos), pretty much everyone in the film is either an unknown or a "Hey, it's that guy!"-type actor. Even better, they're actually really good. I mean, this stuff isn't exactly Shakespeare. You need people who can play roles that require ridiculous costumes and dialogue and do so convincingly. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston somehow manage to get through all their lines without once coming off as campy.
-- Hawkeye. This is the benefit of staying away from spoilers. I knew Jeremey Renner would be playing the character in The Avengers, but I had no idea he'd be introduced here. (And when you consider how many movie sites seem to have decided news like that doesn't count as a spoiler, I'm amazed I missed it.) When you see the hand grab the purple bow, I think half the theater had a geekgasm. Not to be confused with an actual orgasm, which I'm almost positive the woman behind me had when Hemsworth was walking around with his shirt off.
-- The special effects. CGI has gotten to the point where I'm not even sure how much it's possible to improve on it going forward. Asgard looks that good. The best thing that ever happened to Marvel was the film rights to its various properties being tied up through the 1990s. Imagine if they'd tried something as ambitious as Iron Man or Thor back then. The effects would look ghastly compared to now.
-- I finally learned how to pronounce Mjolnir! Okay, this isn't something that's weighed heavily on my mind. But when I actually heard it said correctly, I realized that whenever I've read a comic where Thor appeared, I'd been subconsciously reading it as Ma-jawl-nir. So I'm not big on Norse mythology. Sue me. Unfortunately, Kat Dennings' character immediately started pronouncing it as meow-meow, which is now stuck in my head.
The Bad:
-- The plot. I'm not sure it could have been more by-the-numbers. Worse, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. Thor proves he's worthy to wield meow-meow--I mean, Mjolnir--by being willing to sacrifice his life to protect innocent people? Is there any reason to think he wouldn't have done that beforehand, even before he was exiled? Everyone in Asgard seemed to think he was a pretty stand-up guy. A little impetuous, and maybe rude to his father. But a good, loyal friend. I'm not sure what lesson was learned here.
-- The romantic subplot. Look, most, if not all, human beings would agree Natalie Portman is pretty hot. But when you come from a race of (mostly) physically perfect Norse gods, I'm not sure she's that hot. I definitely didn't buy Thor promising to come back for her after knowing her for all of two days.
The Ugly:
-- The post-credits scene. We've had four of these now in the Marvel film universe: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 and now Thor. It was cool at first. Tony Stark walking into his living room and finding Nick Fury? Awesome. But ever since then, the gimmick's been providing diminishing returns. The bit at the end of The Incredible Hulk had a Stark cameo. Iron Man 2 introduced Mjolnir. Thor introduced the Cosmic Cube. It just seems like they've devolved into a series of, "Hey, this'll get the fanboys all hot and bothered!" moments. Which...okay, I guess, but if you're going to make people sit through the entire closing credits, it'd be nice if these scenes were a bit more substantive.
1 comments:
If Marvel Studios is run in any way like Marvel Comics, it's only a matter of time before they make a movie that's just comprised of those post-credit cameos, with a little more footage linking them together - the same way they publish collected back-up stories with a new SKU and cover.
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