My "Thor" review
May. 27th, 2011 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwexMeant to write this up sooner. Overall, 3.5/5. It wasn't a bad movie in any significant way, but there were enough things that fell short that I was "meh" at places. I didn't really connect to it the way I have with the "Iron Man" character/movies.
The movie attempts to bridge the gap between epic scale and human scale. That it does so at all is noteworthy. JMS's script (how did I not know he was the writer??!) and particularly Chris Hemsworth's performance manage without excessive hokum. I liked the pacing - the early bits move along well, and we get quickly to the first turning point that allows Thor to regain his power and Mjolnir.
I particularly liked the scenes on Jotunheim. I thought the visualizations and effects here were great - the scenery/architecture and the giants. I liked their use of frost weaponry, and the big monster wasn't bad, even if he was a bit cliche. Pretty much any battle scene with Thor got an A in my book for the portrayal and pacing. Again going from simple barroom brawling/wrestling in the mud to the big fight with Loki on Bifrost requires a stretch and the movie manages to scale itself up and down properly so all those fight scenes work.
Hemsworth, Portman, and Hiddleston all do good work. The big disappointment to me was Anthony Hopkins. He's visibly uncomfortable in the fat suit and the heavy make-up hides all the subtle and distinctive facial work that make his acting roles so stellar. Go watch a Hopkins film - see how many tight close-ups he normally gets and how many he gets with no dialog. He's a great actor and was totally wrong for this role.
Some has been said of the choice of Idris Elba for Heimdall because he's black. Given that they've made Nick Fury black I don't see a problem here. I thought Elba did a great job in a role that has some significant plot-pivot points. My problem is not that he's black, it's that he and Tadanobu Asano come across as tokens. Like someone said "wow, these gods are remarkably white - we need one black and one asian to go with our one woman."
Speaking of, I loved Jaimie Alexander as Sif - she has good lines and she does just the right things in the fight with the Destroyer - but I couldn't get over the fact that she had dark hair. In tradition, Sif has golden hair as the goddess of earth and there's a correlation with the gold of wheat in some stories. In Marvel canon as I remember it she starts blonde and only after Loki cuts off her hair does it become dark. So no matter which canon you're using she should've been blonde. In part it's this kind of lack of attention to detail that kept me at arm's length from the movie where Iron Man's little details worked to draw me in.
A notable counter-example was the scene with Hawkeye. He's uncredited on the film but he'll be in Avengers (apparently we'll get five Avengers, which may make for a crowded film). In Thor he was just there doing his thing and the filmmakers were smart enough to assume the audience would know who that guy was.
Finally, I need someone more versed in the Marvel canon to parse that final scene for me. Some people have said it's the Cosmic Cube, which is like Marvel's biggest god-maguffin ever. The thing has been all over, with a dozen different storylines and origins/explanations. If it is the Cube, I guess we'll find out which one they're going to use in Avengers as the big bad in that film looks to be Loki again.
The movie attempts to bridge the gap between epic scale and human scale. That it does so at all is noteworthy. JMS's script (how did I not know he was the writer??!) and particularly Chris Hemsworth's performance manage without excessive hokum. I liked the pacing - the early bits move along well, and we get quickly to the first turning point that allows Thor to regain his power and Mjolnir.
I particularly liked the scenes on Jotunheim. I thought the visualizations and effects here were great - the scenery/architecture and the giants. I liked their use of frost weaponry, and the big monster wasn't bad, even if he was a bit cliche. Pretty much any battle scene with Thor got an A in my book for the portrayal and pacing. Again going from simple barroom brawling/wrestling in the mud to the big fight with Loki on Bifrost requires a stretch and the movie manages to scale itself up and down properly so all those fight scenes work.
Hemsworth, Portman, and Hiddleston all do good work. The big disappointment to me was Anthony Hopkins. He's visibly uncomfortable in the fat suit and the heavy make-up hides all the subtle and distinctive facial work that make his acting roles so stellar. Go watch a Hopkins film - see how many tight close-ups he normally gets and how many he gets with no dialog. He's a great actor and was totally wrong for this role.
Some has been said of the choice of Idris Elba for Heimdall because he's black. Given that they've made Nick Fury black I don't see a problem here. I thought Elba did a great job in a role that has some significant plot-pivot points. My problem is not that he's black, it's that he and Tadanobu Asano come across as tokens. Like someone said "wow, these gods are remarkably white - we need one black and one asian to go with our one woman."
Speaking of, I loved Jaimie Alexander as Sif - she has good lines and she does just the right things in the fight with the Destroyer - but I couldn't get over the fact that she had dark hair. In tradition, Sif has golden hair as the goddess of earth and there's a correlation with the gold of wheat in some stories. In Marvel canon as I remember it she starts blonde and only after Loki cuts off her hair does it become dark. So no matter which canon you're using she should've been blonde. In part it's this kind of lack of attention to detail that kept me at arm's length from the movie where Iron Man's little details worked to draw me in.
A notable counter-example was the scene with Hawkeye. He's uncredited on the film but he'll be in Avengers (apparently we'll get five Avengers, which may make for a crowded film). In Thor he was just there doing his thing and the filmmakers were smart enough to assume the audience would know who that guy was.
Finally, I need someone more versed in the Marvel canon to parse that final scene for me. Some people have said it's the Cosmic Cube, which is like Marvel's biggest god-maguffin ever. The thing has been all over, with a dozen different storylines and origins/explanations. If it is the Cube, I guess we'll find out which one they're going to use in Avengers as the big bad in that film looks to be Loki again.
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-27 04:39 pm (UTC)I note that there was a split-second shot of the Infinity Gauntlet in the Asgardian Armory. Loki gathering the Infinity Gems would make for a far more interesting movie!
I'm not familiar with the Infinity Gems/Gauntlet
Date: 2011-05-27 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-27 05:01 pm (UTC)Hiddleston has confirmed that Loki will be in The Avengers.
I too missed that JMS wrote the screenplay. I even missed his cameo appearance.
I admit that I had little experience with the Avengers comic book prior to watching this film, so my perceptions of the characters are different.
Cameo?
Date: 2011-05-27 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-28 11:44 pm (UTC)The absorbing man would be a pretty, pretty villain. (SFX-wise)