Od's Blood! Hath ILE no thread for anticipation of THOR: RAGNAROK? Verily?

Rumors abound! Natalie Portman is out! Valkyrie is in! It's a Thor/Hulk buddy/road pic! Or maybe it isn't! We will see more of Loki! Or maybe less!

What the hel, as always I'm in until I'm not.

when is the Beta Ray Bill spinoff

we want frog thor

Seth Rogen as Surtur

fuck a Thor movie

I can't even pith thraighth etc etc

Does anyone like Ragnarok in the comics? or in Marvel Puzzle Quest? Seems that Disney/Marvel is putting a lot of faith in newer comic arcs that aren't very good (like Civil War).

they should have let loki die in thor 2.

not *that* ragnarok lol

iirc beta ray bill is slated for 2027

Oh yeah dude, the 'Ragnarok' in the film title is almost certainly a reference to the event and not the Thor android clone thing. God help us all.

This is being directed by the guy who did Eagle Vs. Shark and a handful of Flight of The Conchords episodes.
This is going to be amazing.

Please let there be a Jemaine Clement cameo as some nameless Asgardian crime-scene cleanup guy

To me Ragnarok is a sword in Final Fantasy and a robot in comics.

there was a ragnarok plot arc in the late 70s but I don't remember an android clone aspect

Ragnarok as a 'concept' features in the 60s Kirby issues:

http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/stevereads/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/let-ragnarok-fall.jpg

Ragnarok also happened as part of Avengers Disassembled ca 10 years ago, iirc.

mentioned in asgardian lore a number of times in the comics, here's some deep background for abanana
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar%C3%B6k

there was a ragnarok plot arc in the late 70s but I don't remember an android clone aspect

― tremendous crime wave and killing wave (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Tuesday, April 26, 2016 6:24 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This was a recent development. Tony Stark and Reed Richards whipped him up in a lab when Thor was feared dead after the last Asgardian Ragnarok. Thor came back and was none too happy when he found out what they'd done.

Not least because the clone had killed Bill Foster, aka Goliath.

Ohhhh, right. It's been a minute since I read Civil War.

I think Bendis brought back the cyborg/clone thing under the control of Norman Osborn for a minute before everyone reminded him to stop trying to make that concept happen

well, evidently there's a comic called Loki Ragnarok about a detective having that name, so I can't find the rad panel that closed out an issue of the earlier storyline where Loki's in close-up saying something along the lines of MANY HAVE SAID THAT RAGNAROK WAS NEAR, BUT ON THIS DAY, FEAR NOT...IT COMES! but that thing had a profound effect on me

that is some good cheesiness

Oh my god you guys Jeff Goldblum is playing The Grandmaster

With Del Toro's turn as The Collector and now this, I'm going to be disappointed if we don't get at least two or three more Elders before Infinity War. Gardener, Contemplator, Runner maybe? Hopefully not the Champion or the Obliterator, they sucked.

I hope we get a pointless Contest of Champions movie

from a new interview with taiki waititi:

I was really excited when Kevin and the rest of Marvel jumped on board with the idea to use Kirby as a big influence in the design of the film. What’s really hard is staying authentic.

i really hope they kirby the shit outta this one

Surely they have the CGI budget to pack this thing with dots.

and lotsa foreshortening

Giant CGI hands for all

And square fingertips

heck yeah

with the fox/marvel split, who has the celestials?

I dunno, but they would be an acceptable source of cinematic spectacle in Galactus's absence.

I kinda still can't believe that other giant space entity (who I won't name for those who avoid spoilage) is going to be in the next GotG.

"ragnarok" is the sound i make when i use mouthwash

with the fox/marvel split, who has the celestials?

marvel - one showed up very briefly in gotg

actually there's two, cuz knowhere is in the hollowed-out head of a dead celestial

oh yah

I can't remember, has Thor yelled "BY ODIN'S BLOOD" at any point in the movies so far? Hopefully we get a few of those.

Very disappointed by the dearth of alliterative exclamations in Dr. Strange.

First photos via EW:

http://ew.com/movies/thor-ragnarok-exclusive-first-look-photos/thor-chris-hemsworth

Are you not at least partially entertained?

I art intruiged.

One of the nice things about the three-movies-a-year is that they don't really start the hype train for each movie 24 months in advance.

why did he get a haircut?!?!?!?

jeff goldblum as the grandmaster looks ridiculous, which is good

I can only hope that he and Del Toro will be hamming it up together at some point as they play a grand cosmic game with our heroes' very lives.

I always think the costumes & makeup always look super cheap in these production photos and generally pretty good on film, the exception being the last X-Men movie which looked terrible in every way.

first Avengers is p much halloween costumes

they've gotten subsequently better. Dr. Strange was pretty good although not halloween-y enough imo

I SAY THEE... TRAILER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7MGUNV8MxU

Much more "Guardians of the Galaxy" in tone.

"We know each other! He's a friend from work!"

particularly enjoying goth cate blanchett in full hela regalia

Cate Blanchett looks glorious and perfect in this. Major lol at the "friend from work" line.

That looks fucking awesome

All that and perfect 80s fonts.

Also, Jeff Goldblum being himself. As it were.

I'm pretty excited about all three 2017 MCU films.

BG's hope that they would "kirby the shit out of this one" appears to have been fulfilled. I love the blocky unbalanced spaceships

hela can't do that to mjolnir, wtf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_xMZ8s9m4E

otm

immigrant song is a good thor fit, all that shares norse mythology fan fiction

io9 with a breakdown:

http://io9.gizmodo.com/all-the-comic-connections-plot-details-and-amazing-ha-1794174754

comics-wise, the Grandmaster plot arc looks like a Contest of Champions/Planet Hulk mash-up

As far as Marvel trying to make some comics pieces fit film events, the Hela bit makes me wonder if that's going to be a further link into the cinematic universe that's partially echoed in print -- right now, Hela's most recently appeared allied with Thanos

casting helmsworth is the best thing they ever did with the mcu. the thor franchise could have sunk the whole project imo.

So excited for this. Just have to make it to November.

watched it again now just for the colours

his reaction shot on "Yes!" is the best. could watch over and over.
it's not just the THOR franchise -- his comedy beats in both avengers flix are gold.

"casting helmsworth is the best thing they ever did with the mcu. "

Yes he's done a great job, the young new actor who worked out. unlike captain ablandica.

This trailer doesn't seem anything like Thor 1 or its remake Thor 2 so I'm happy.

captain ablandica

i will fite u

It's a feature, not a bug -- Evans plays Cap just right.

generally speaking casting is way down the lists of MCU films' problems

could Blanchett be a genuinely interesting Marvel villain?

who cares, she looks amazing

Cate Blanchett by and large is amazing in every single role she takes on so I am not particularly worried about her ability to be a fantastic Hela.

takes a special kind of screen presence to make hela's headdress look awesome

plenty of excellent actors have already foundered as baddies in the MCU

I guess Hiddleston's the best and they totally wasted him in the second Thor movie. Although that was the least of its problems

this looks like a blast

who is the gravitas bringer in this one?

Cate Blanchett obv

this looks dope

i saw the new trailer, it was cool, but it did feel like they made a trailer and then someone told them to use "Immigrant Song" and they fit it to what they had already cut.

I enjoy p much all of these movies but they suffer from the same major problems

The plot is the same every time

The setup of impossible odds takes up most of the movie and hey ho these odds are defeated in the last five mins

but mostly

It is unthinkable that anyone we care about dies, or even gets hurt beyond a scratch

I'll still catch it in the cinema and undoubtedly have a blast but I mean I have a blast bowling and bowling doesn't cost 70 million dollars to put together and is rarely utterly stupid

I take it you've never played glow in the dark bowling, or put those inflatable bumpers in the gutters

Strike utterly stupid from the record

This looks waaay better than the first two movies did

Sold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg

The poster, well, that's it's own thing:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DFYizNyVwAEmCzG.jpg:large

Trying that again:

Check out the new #ThorRagnarok #SDCC poster that just debuted in Hall H! pic.twitter.com/tB424JZ9Ka

— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) July 23, 2017

Hulk vs Fenrir!

Hulk Talk!

Facebook friend sez this is all very 80s Walter Simonson, and he's not wrong.

How to handle it all.

Director @TaikaWaititi on the biggest challenge while shooting "Thor: Ragnarok" #SDCC2017 #SDCC pic.twitter.com/GA92u0O4E7

— Variety (@Variety) July 23, 2017

my dumb ass, of course, forgot to put his name and his dad stereotype. it's probably too late to fix it now but i fixed it anyway pic.twitter.com/eS7P1lLoWS

— Ty Kawaii Titty (@taika_waititi) July 22, 2017

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY

Yes, I'm way into everything that's happening there.

Gay milestone: Cate Blanchett using her role in Thor: Ragnarok to recreate Madeline Kahn in Clue. pic.twitter.com/NQt1jxbFHR

— Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) July 23, 2017

this just keeps looking better and better, holy shit

i wonder if they'll end up using hela as the object of thanos' obsession in infinity war

I thought that was a Clickhole tweet at first glance

i wonder if they'll end up using hela as the object of thanos' obsession in /infinity war/

I can't see why they wouldn't, but the multi-movie actor contracts around these tent poles seem practically a matter of public record lately so it seems like we would know

end of that Unworthy Thor comic series has a Hela/Thanos teaser, maybe

Me and some wannabeme's. #Ragnarok #latimes #SDCC2017 pic.twitter.com/YWGJTKnCg1

— Taika Waititi (@TaikaWaititi) July 24, 2017

love this so much i don't even care that it's lolhueg

http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/thor-ragnarok-image-7.jpg

that shot from the other perspective in the trailer is just as ridiculous

more of that, please

yeah, the ride of the valkyries shots from the trailer are beautiful (and a great example of teal-and-orange done well)

I enjoyed the previous Thor movies but this one really looks like it will be next-level great.

I'm also kind of wishing we could have a Thor/Wonder Woman crossover.

love the anti-Snyder color scheme of that poster.

thor is the god of thunder and friendship

the poster almost makes me want to see this. almost

high praise

http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/7c/7cc58a977a4e7f20b51495b91124ec02dcbfdfba72d9fe41fef1b2d5c338a695.jpg

Imagining Shakey warning off a squad of earnest film critics...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DFa8BZkXcAA15cG.jpg

mh the shot i posted is in the trailer as well :)

but this is the one you're looking for

http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/thor-ragnarok-image-8.jpg

so basically it looks like an average episode of American Gods

all episodes of American Gods are average

that one shot of hera makes me really want this to be the MCU take on Heavy Metal

Facebook friend sez this is all very 80s Walter Simonson, and he's not wrong

In what ways specifically are the trailer or poster like Simonson's Thor comics (which are of course totally Kirby derived anyway)? None of the visuals look remotely like Simonson's design work, and the story material seems drawn either from Kirby's run on Thor, the Planet Hulk stories from the 2000s, some of the Roy Thomas/Herb Trimpe Hulk issues from the late sixties and, most clearly, the Peter David/George Perez Future Imperfect mini-series from 1992.

And yeah that poster is a candy coloured treat, but again looks absolutely nothing like anything ever drawn by Walt Simonson (it's closer to an old Rampaging Hulk painted cover by Joe Jusko or someone like that).

skurge wielding two machine guns is one of the iconic images of simonson's thor and it's directly referenced in the trailer

and the giant flaming face the hulk is leaping towards looks very much like surtur

OK, I will give you the machine guns - but both the Executioner and Surtur date right back to the Journey into Mystery Thor comics by Kirby.

well yeah, but the way they're being used suggests that simonson's interpretation of those characters is going to play some part in the movie

Well yeah, but that's a long way from "all very Simonson" - "all very Kirby with some later iterations by Simonson and others" would be closer to it.

okay, sure, let's ask ned to copy and paste this thrilling exchange in reponse to his facebook friend's comment, that'll show 'em

Cool, didn't realise that imprecision should always go unchallenged on ILX.

new board descrip pls mods

the reasons to look forward to this just keep coming:

“The cut right now, I reckon it’s about 100 minutes. It’s not gonna be a very, very long film. I think that stories are better when you leave them wanting more, and this film moves at a clip, it’s got stuff happening all the time. I think people are still gonna feel exhausted by the end, they’ve been on this big journey and stuff, so I don’t think we need the film to be three hours.”

cate blanchett looks like she's having a lot of fun with that role

I watched the trailer and now I don't want to see this anymore

That discomfort you're feeling when you sit down? I fear that it might be a stick. And you don't even want to know where it's lodged.

Watch the one with "Immigrant Song" and you'll want to see it again.

when ur mad online about the new Thor trailer pic.twitter.com/R1DPoan89C

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 26, 2017

I'm not mad guys

Well never mind that, how's your fancy Senatorial laptop?

he'th not mad he'th jutht thor

Lol

The Senator has considered your objections.

It's less about the trailer & more the material of Thor's hammer—we need to crack down on any illegal uru dumping & support American steel. https://t.co/0GdSJrqwlg

— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) July 26, 2017

taiki waititi otm:

I loved the kind of cosmic trippy vibe of the Thor comics. Another influence for me was Flash Gordon. I grew up loving that movie. … I’ve often said if Freddie Mercury were alive, I would have asked Queen to do the soundtrack. It just has that feel: it’s a cool bold, colorful cosmic adventure. And it just needed to be fun.

Hoping we finally get some Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher action in this one. The inevitable Pet Avengers movie isn't going to build itself.

they got Hasselhoff in GOTG, no reason they can't tap Brian May to contribute something to the soundtrack

So based on this still I'm guessing Hulk has a fan club on the gladiator planet.

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--xmAJlQ5N--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/kn3d1vzli0z4ausxbrtf.jpg

what makes u think that

kind of cool they're doing a contest of champions thing with a little planet hulk thrown in and that's just a side-plot

and all in significantly under two hours!

http://the-triangle.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/112-splash.jpg

maybe more literally planet hulk than I thought: http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/880299-over-80-hi-res-thor-ragnarok-photos#/slide/12

looks like Korg from the Hulk's posse in that arc is in this film!

http://68.media.tumblr.com/362e9edd78012e6d13e2836fdeebcffa/tumblr_ouw21ht68v1r1mpi1o1_1280.jpg

Nice to know the movie is on good heads

Happy 100th Birthday to The King, Jack Kirby! His art hugely influenced the Ragnarok look & this is my "Galactic Head" which I wear to bed. pic.twitter.com/vFDStKT0wt

— Taika Waititi (@TaikaWaititi) August 28, 2017

unparalleled screen-name/content synergy

Kirby's art 'influenced' the Ragnarok look because he uh drew it in the first place? Also that Kirby painting has nothing to do with Thor.

how did you interpret a twitter post this badly

To annoy you

How did you interpret an ILX post etc

i'm in awe of you really

Good!

That helmet is amazing. The painting is one of my favorite Kirby pieces.

I thought I was the only person who wore one of those to bed

Kirby's art 'influenced' the Ragnarok look because he uh drew it in the first place?

"Ragnarok look" = the look of the movie called Ragnarok, which had no legal obligation (possibly a moral or aesthetic one) to draw heavily on Kirby's art style

Also that Kirby painting has nothing to do with Thor.

If you'll direct your attention to the other three-quarters of the photo, you'll see a man wearing a helmet corresponding to the painting. We are at a degree of remove from Thor, I sympathize with any vertigo you might feel.

Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.

Best,

I thought I was the only person who wore one of those to bed

tombot in the streets, galactic head in the sheets

ladies

The head is indeed galactic tbf

Similarly with Guardians/Dr Strange, the more batshit classic cosmic Kirby/Simonson vermilion weirdness they can stuff into a major Hollywood blockbuster franchise, the happier I am.

Let Taika & James Gunn duel it out for who can get the deepest shit onscreen.

Ooo new username tho

Kirby's art 'influenced' the Ragnarok look because he uh drew it in the first place?

Based on the info we have, the main comic book influences for the story seem to be: Planet Hulk, Simonson's Hela/Hel arc, and the various "Ragnarök" arcs in Thor, none of which (AFAIK) were drawn Kirby. (He did do a brief depiction of the Ragnarök in the "Tales of Asgard" backup, but that was one of stories set in Asgard's mythical past, not in present day.) Of course Kirby did originally create a lot of these characters, but that doesn't mean his art would automatically inform the director of the movie; it didn't do so with the Avengers or Ant-Man movies, for example.

I don't mean to disrespect Kirby in any way, but there's 50+ years worth of material to draw from with these characters, so reducing it all to the one guy who originally drew them doesn't do the other creators justice.

Thanks for your non-cuntish response Tuomas, tho saying "reducing it all to the one guy who originally drew them" is, if not intentionally 'disrespectful', somewhat underplaying Kirby's contribution imho - after the Fantastic Four, Thor was the comic that Kirby worked on for the longest continuous stretch of his career, nearly ten years, and during that time I think he created almost all of the major characters in the comics (w/ obvious exceptions like, yes, Simonson's Beta Ray Bill) and all of the visual iconography - the costumes, the rainbow bridge, the décor and verily, even Ragnarok:

https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/674393.jpg

It's no secret that artists like John Buscema, succeeding Kirby on titles like Thor and the FF, were instructed to follow Jack's storytelling style as closely as possible; in fact of all the major Marvel titles, Thor seems to me the most unchanged (in terms of design and thematic content) since the 1960s.

verily, even Ragnarok

IIRC the issue you posted doesn't actually have anything to do with the mythical Ragnarök? That word in the title is a metaphor for the battle against Mangog, an original Kirby creation who's not related to the Norse myths?

It's been a while since I've read it T, but iirc there is definitely some end of the world type shit going on too - but will try and re-read tonight. I take it the new Thor movie's Ragnarök is the mythic, end of the world variety too?

The thing is, I'm actually looking forward to this new Thor film, I've enjoyed the other two and this looks especially fun - both Kirby and Lee had a slightly daft sense of humour which the best of the Marvel movies reflect and update and which, I'm sure, partly accounts for their success with a wide audience.

..are you reading it much these days?

(xpost to Ward's previous post)

I tried a few of the issues with the female Thor (who had a terminal illness) and wasn't that engaged by it, but I'm sure there are good stories still to be told in this universe. Obviously a gender change is some kind of departure from the same old, and I'm getting the feeling that you're trying to suggest that other recent Thor comics represent a break with the Kirby tradition, so am happy to be enlightened (without the condescension, if possible). But many years ago, Stan Lee described the Marvel formula as "The illusion of change rather than change itself" and I think that still holds today - ie everything ultimately gets reset back to year zero, nothing changed, nothing really at stake. To do otherwise might in fact tinker too much with the whole appeal of a long-running, on-going monthly comic book where the appeal is the familiar and known, however much repurposed 'for today's audience'.

I don't know how Kirby it is, but if you haven't read the Gillen run on Journey Into Mystery you should really do that as soon as possible. So lovely.

Tickets on sale, see you there, etc.

OK Tuomas, I have now re-read those Mangog issues of Thor, and the Ragnarok that features in them is definitely the same Ragnarok that has appeared in countless other Thor storylines - ie the end of all things (even Asgard) being brought about by the unsheathing of the Odinsword. Now I don't know if this is the same Ragnarok that features in the new Thor movie, or how much or how little the Kirby depiction departs from the established, mythological Ragnarok - but in these issues, it definitely isn't just a metaphor. (Re-reading these issues again was also a painful reminder of just how bad Colleta's inking got towards the end of his run on the comic; so sad to see one of Kirby's two major sixties series utterly diminished by unbelievably shoddy inking).

Even Walt Simonson thinks this new movie is 'all very Simonson', tho:

http://www.cbr.com/thor-ragnarok-walt-simonson-reaction/

Enjoyed this piece:

https://www.themarysue.com/taika-waititi-indigenous-representation-thor-ragnarok/

And this was fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpTdK2kn6TA

i really hope they kirby the shit outta this one

― Rush Limbaugh and Lou Reed doing sex with your parents (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 20 December 2016 14:11 (ten months ago) Permalink

GUYS THEY REALLY KIRBYED THE SHIT OUTTA THIS ONE

in fact, they kirbyed it so hard that it kinda sucks when the action moves occasionally from the dayglo pop-art kirbyplanet back to boring old sackcloth-clad asgard

this wasn't as good as i was hoping it would be but then my expectations were sky-high going in. it's frequently very funny tho, and blanchett and goldblum are clearly relishing the taste of scenery

does Thor get turned into a giant frog y/n

It was so funny and it's great to see the Thor side of things kept a reasonable distance from the ultra sombre MCU side

Banner vv different to his avengers character which is kinda weird

Blanchett omg

I love Taiki cameos but this was not a good idea

But srsly this was awesome and fun

Like really funny, not just avengers funny

XP its referenced

does Thor get turned into a giant frog y/n

Goldblum gets a lot more lines than I expected in this and 90% of them are scenestealers

ok I might see this, my daughter is interested (as she is in a big Norse mythos phase)

I love Taiki cameos but this was not a good idea

Goldblum gets a lot more lines than I expected in this and 90% of them are scenestealers

I'm being harsh on Taiki I mean he kills me but it just got a bit in the way a bit too much imo

It's small beans tho

I do know his name the phone autocorrects to Taiki I swear

i think banner's heroic faceplant was my favourite moment that wasn't spoiled by the trailer

So the movie hasn't even opened yet and this thread is spoilerville?

it's open somewhere, you just have to look at the posters to know where

weird that dmac and i have both seen it despite it not being out

huh

how can anybody care about spoilers in this kind of movie idgi

the heroes win in the end SPOILER

like if there were ever a genre of films where absolutely nothing was at stake, it's the continuity-bound superhero movie

Tbf I don't see any spoilers wmc?

bg posted that there's something good that wasn't in the trailer 24 HOUR BAN

Oh for reals fuck that guy

But anyway go see this everyone. It's like gotg2 or Dr strange but really really good

Without any stakes in the plot, what's left are gags. Don't spoil the gags. This isn't rocket science, like?

no-one's spoiled the gags either as far as i can see

and tbf to this admittedly featherlight flyaway action-comedy, the plot ends up being a pretty good example of 'the illusion of change' that superhero comics strive for - the status quo has changed by the end of the movie

Yeah look apologies if I'm missing it but srsly nothing spoiled itt imo

Go see it!

people's bar for "spoilers" is so stupidly high now

gah i cannot wait for this
November 3 cannot come soon enough

This was good, not great. The humor sometimes fought with the stakes of the plot - I thought the GotG movies integrated humor better. This would have been a better movie if they just kept it on the junkyard planet and had more Goldblum, but I say that about every movie

Cannot believe you guys keep spoiling this movie. Had no idea Thor was even in it. Thanks, Obalama.

since we're deep into major spoiler territory now, i can finally say that my favourite part is when thor hits the guys with his hammer and then says something funny - a+ work from waititi and hemsworth, would watch again

are there any frost giants?

does anyone say, "Hey buddy, this is my planet, not PLANET HULK!" (conspicuous reference to comics plot)

so bcz i am an over-earnest twerp who knows nearly nothing of comics, i actually found the jokiness of this a bit overbearing right up until tessa thompson turned up (by which time i guess i'd got the rhythm of taika sense of humour and settled in to enjoy the rest)

= i ended up thinking it was kind of bad but very funny, will watch again (on TV)

i: it looked tremendous
ii: the plot development had curious jumpcuts here and there (maybe this was the rhythm i didn't straight away pick up on)
iii: i kind of missed hemsworth's earlier version of thor's puzzled-nobility-in-a-world-where-no-one-understands-godly-duty -- here if anything he's the one swiftest to reach for and most at ease with the pomposity-puncturing humour of the rest of the nine worlds
iv: hiddleston's loki less fun than previously (perhaos as a conseq
v: change of attitude towards the hulk also (no spoilers except to say it kind of bothered me) (cf over-earnest twerp, no doubt)
vi: tessa thompson was excellent
vii: cate blanchett (who i generally love even in bad films) less so -- haven't yet put my finger on why exactly, as she looked terrific

to complete that one thought: (perhaps as a consequence of iii?)

tessa thompson was excellent

yeah, otm - i think she's my favourite thing about the movie. taika waititi apparently pitched her on valkyrie being the movie's han solo and she's great at playing it

she gets an awesome introduction too

it absolutely kicks up a needed notch when we arrive on the ~spoiler~ planet and first encounter her

(also: there's not TOO MUCH goldblum, which is the mistake a lot of goldblum-based films make)

Loki is not good anymore because he's not dangerous anymore

Haha now I have a ton of things to say - but whose is this petard? And why am I hoist on it?

BG’s terrribleunforgivablespoiler is OTM - the sound in the cinema when this happened was amazing.

Mark’s situation obviously better than being over-earnest and knowing too much of the comics, which would cause one to claim that the portrayal of Korg was wrong, clearly the worst take available to any sentient being.

The plot development jumpcuts are possibly a result of this being three or four comics stories stuck together.

Very rare that the awkward sellotaping-to-main-continuity* cameo is as entertaining as this.

All else is dread spoiler.

* though it’s happening in reverse here, bringing another film in.

everything i want to expand on -- to respond to deems on loki etc -- is actually likely a bit over-spoilery for now ("the GAGS are ALL we HAVE"), so in the interests of expanding the conversation in a relevant direction w/o doing stepping on the unrevealed joys of others i present freaky trigger's ancient* analysis of both films (started by me, who has read few if any of the comics) and comics, as supplied mainly by mog and by tom (who have read all of them):
a: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2013/05/marvel-a-character-guide
b: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2015/02/marvel-comics-a-character-guide

*four years ago!
disclaimer: i was still MUCH too uncritically pro-whedon back then -- i enjoyed avengers assemble and age of ultron had not yet been made, and never should have been >:(

https://13thdimension.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/stan.png

I appreciated the anything goes wackiness and crazy cosmic production design - easily the most Kirbyesque Marvel movie. The plot was lazy bollocks though, and the relentless humour wore me down after a while.

This was great. The climactic Skurge set piece felt more tacked-on than any of the Korg & Miek stuff.

very Flash Gordon, btw, amazed nobody else has pointed that out.

huh, good point

well, I mean, David Edelstein did

http://www.vulture.com/2017/10/thor-ragnarok-review.html

I hate that this wasn't terrible. I don't want there to be any more of these movies and it's obscene that there would be one now that's not terrible.

What a strange opinion to have.

I really hope we get an Elders meetup sometime during Infinity War.

Horror : Morbs :: Marvel : Me

bummed that us ilxors are finally seeing this only just after i forget the details of what i enjoyed in it

That mighty burden aside, it’s not as though Marvel have been making them at a loss until your opinion shone upon one?

(xp)

some specific high points, for me

- the spaceships! None of them made sense. Screw some gravity / solaris / sunshine nonsense. I want a LEGO set of Valkyrie's Scuttler / Slave-1 thing.

- Blanchett was hot.

- "Anywhere else I'd be millions of years old, but on Sakaar..." "..." "..."

- I'm so glad they didn't burn more than one scene (OK and one joke at the end, I guess) dealing with the negative aspects of hulking out. This is the first movie where we just let Hulk be Hulk! I find this gratifying, and appropriate for the context.

- all the wonky guard outfits that looked like celestials, more of that, please

- the melt stick

- "Tex-arse"

- actually great Thor vs Hulk battle

Certainly agreed with BG re the swapping between the incredible visuals on Sakaar and the relatively humdrum look of Asgard (esp considering they way I remember Asgard from the first movie). Did not really enjoy how readily they dispatched certain other key players from the first two movies. You'd think there would be just a little more reckoning with those losses.

the revolution is on

no need for pamphlets this time

I didn’t see the valkyries descending and attacking bit, was that a flashback I missed when I was a dummy and went to the bathroom?

yes. it's v. brief

oh well, I’ll see it again someday

enjoyed the chekov’s gun moment

oh yes, and “I’ve been hulk for two years?!?”

this was ... i feel like this is as good as one of these movies can get, which is to say i want a consistently funny romp which doesn't feel like it's striving for weight --
though the occasional sudden swerve towards sincerity in the first guardians totally got me, i found the same in the second of those to totally fail to land, every time

i'm curious who is responsible for the look and feel of the action scenes -- they're very different to that of the captain america movies. in those i feel like the tight, local, close-up, crunchy stuff is the tonic, and anything where the combatants are put into context is a deliberate change of mode -- here the wide-angle stuff is far more dominant (which makes this feel to me 'more like a comic book' and 'less like an action movie')

obvs the big superhero dust-up in civil war is a bit of an exception to the above

Trying to put (lengthy) flesh on the reason for my mild disappointment: as I said, I can be over-earnest about some things, and it (absurdly) turns out, one of those things is ASGARD.

I’ll explain, by way of digression. In my youth I was fond of the band YES, though they were often very ridiculous and because they were ridiculous, and in many ways I still am. But even at the time I thought tatty Thor-lookalike Rick Wakeman was a bullshit artist — a capable show-off who could phone it in and fake it, basically providing needed colour-texture that fools considered tremendous musical stuntman ship. Quasi-classical virtuosity for people who had no idea what the real thing was: he actually wasn’t that good. (OK, yes, I was a callow intellectual snob. Stunt music is actually a thing in itself — interesting as tradition and as offering — and carny flash was often exactly what ppl were responding. But again, I don’t think Wakeman was ever that good of a carny stuntman: he’s quick — or was, once — but he’s often also incredibly sloppy and lazy.)

Anyway, some time in late 80s or 80s, Mr Wakeman find a new gig, on UK TV: as an affable fellow unendingly employed to poke fun at the ideals and the excesses of his own youth. A very 90s jag on pop culture —haha what were we thinking? — and one that seriously wound me up in many ways and forms (a lot of people were ploughing this bad-faith furrow then).

I don’t mind people looking back on their past and smiling a bit: I was an idiot as a kid, as were we all now and then, probably. What I disliked and dislike was the condescension that went with it: the assumption that obviously we all saw so much more clearly now. Which (given this was the 90s) I very much doubt. Anyway, alongside the amused affection, I wanted — and want — some recognition and ownership of the ideals, even when the ideals were wack. I didn’t like that grown-up Wakeman now safely and smugly ceded the field to sceptical teenage me: that he was a bullshit artist and it was all bullshit. The adaptive move of a coward -- because he hadn’t just been a bullshit artist; he too had taken part in the utopian project of his moment. He had cared too, even if — at worst? at best? — he had often had to fake it to keep pace with it.

Bring it back to Marvel: one of the things I love about the character Thor (who is very extremely unlike Wakeman in most ways) is the uncloudedness of his commitment to old-school virtues. Odin’s Asgard is a haven of culture and peace and beauty and firm stance against all things bad in the nine worlds etc etc. Well obviously Odin is actually a capricious self-regarding asshole and Asgard is VERY flawed: but Thor is utterly and uncomplicatedly and rather beautifully faithful to the ideals of this project. He understands the concept of duty; as a God, he lives it. Unlike Odin or Loki, he is not at all a cynic.

A friend — even more stuck on this notion than me — was acutely offended by the “He’s adopted” gag in Avengers Assemble (which gets a callback in Ragnarok: she pointed out that loyalty is so absolutely basic to Thor’s make-up that this was an impossible thing for him to say. Well, maybe: Whedon was being winky and meta (a device he used to be able to make work), and I didn’t mind this particular joke bcz Hemsworth’s timing and delivery made it work. It kind of revealed who Thor is by funny by being against character, if that makes sense.

But in this film (to get to my point at very long last), it feels like everything is being sacrificed to an extended version of the same ethos of zing uber alles: here Thor is as wise-ass as everyone else, and in that context, nothing is any longer at stake when Asgard comes under threat. No one is repping for Asgard: not Loki (obviously), but also now no longer Odin or even Thor. Heimdall is doing some scrappy rescue work, but Elba has always played him as committed entirely to the craft of his work and his gift, as someone necessarily actually somewhat isolated from Asgard as a society (he is never not at the far end of the bridge, seeing all and declining to judge).

The point here is less the loss of Asgard as concept (obviously it was never not pretty silly) than the loss of a dimension of Thor’s character elsewhere maintained against his own amused joining-in jokiness. Everyone else is unavoidably damaged and a dick (that’s part of the point of a Marvel superhero). But Thor — who is not a superhero but a God — also has this unlikely but ineradicable store of unsullied kind honour. It wasn’t betrayed in this film, exactly, but it had sorta gone missing. And that made me a bit sad.

That’s probably actually a good place for me to bring up this aspect which I completely missed: the post-colonial aspects of the film.

http://septembriseur.tumblr.com/post/167070666034/thor-ragnarok-is-the-first-marvel-movie-ive

that's a nice piece but if anything that intensifies my feeling: the film's ideals -- as set out there -- are much too well swathed in a cheery superficial disavowal of the idea of ideals (which is why they're so widely overlooked)

(it's an issue of balance and incorrectly calibrated creative tension more than an either-or, obviously)

I get you with that Wakeman adaptive coward thing, it is annoying but he can still talk about his music proudly and seriously when an interviewer wants that. Overrated chops or not, he's made some gorgeous music and he's still very underrated.

I think the video I posted on the Wonder Woman thread touches on that cowardly humour thing (which Wonder Woman apparently avoided).

See, mark, I disagree. He says approximately 40 times in this movie that he runs towards his problems because that's what a hero does. He also makes a pretty great speech to Loki about growing up and moving on. I would never have thought that the movie Thor (after the first one) should have to talk like the one in the Avengers comic books that I read. And he's the one that figures out that he has to take his visions seriously, listen to his dead pops' ghost (who intentionally misled him his whole life, btw, about his entire family) and let Asgard (the realm) get wrecked so that the Æsir may survive.

I thought this was fun, but then, that's what I thought about the last Thor movie, too, and apparently people didn't like that one. I wish there was no Asgard stuff, though, because who cares. Given the build up of Hera, she really shouldn't have felt like a b-story character. Anyway, I dig Thor as wise-ass because in a world when ("in a world ...") most of the characters are virtually immortal/indestructible, it all becomes a big silly game. Very "you won this time, Loki!" I mean, that story with Loki stabbing him as a child, these people have been punching each other for millennia.

I enjoyed this. I also dig the shitloads of Kirbydesign everywhere, like how the droid bartender was an Eternal, only slightly chintzier in build

i was listening earlier to an interview with the director wherein he registered mild amazement at the idea that marvel allowed his character to go on talking and undercutting the seriousness of the demise of asgard

anthony-hopkins-as-tom-hiddleston-as-loki-as-odin's 'oh shit' perhaps my favorite moment of the whole movie. did they even bother explaining how loki didn't die? marvellous

there are a lot of things in existence that i need to retain some semblance of sincerity but i fear thor is never going to be one. anyway i hope they end up doing the midgard-in-the-u.s. schtick from the comics.

they show him sneaking off in the last movie, not dying

my memory betrayed me. i thought we saw him die and then he's revealed to be alive in the final scene.

They revealed he was being Odin after the closing credits of the last one - no explanation other than God of Lies.

I cracked up at the idea of the director pitching his role. "Yeah, so I'll be this kind of comic relief guy, and will have this sidekick I share all the scenes with!"

Then the producers sit down to watch the movie and realize the sidekick is either animated and doing a little dance, or is a ragdoll that gets carried around, in every scene. No lines.

xp thing is right though there’s no explanation.

*thomp

Poll idea: Hopkins as Loki as Odin vs Matt Damon as Loki vs Sam Neill as Odin vs Liam Hemsworth as Thor

basically whenever he's standing there he's actually over there *points vaguely*

It's a freaky circle.

anthony-hopkins-as-tom-hiddleston-as-loki-as-odin's 'oh shit' perhaps my favorite moment of the whole movie.

― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Monday, 6 November 2017 14:22 (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Otm

I definitely remember a "loki is now playing Odin" bit btw

ah, I remember what scene I'm thinking of: The Dark World had a guard that went to check on the area where Thor and Loki were battling, and one of the guards gets mugged off camera and is definitely Loki, so that's how he gets a ride back to Asgard. They don't show him avoiding death in the actual fight, but he pulls that shit nearly constantly.

BTW, it's not his fault, because he is who he is, but I couldn't hear the rock guy without thinking of his scene here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86w_RV_fcEk

I pardon you...from life

I have not seen that movie and uh, I guess I need to catch up

New Zealander humor, lol

I have told everyone that wilderppl is the best movie of 2016 were you sick that day or wha

I dunno about that, but it's so charmingly weird. Like Wes Anderson minus the arch tweeness.

I recommend the vampire doc first, though.

Some people I now dislike who loved Flight of the Conchords came to mind whenever I'd watch anything related, but I think I'm cured now

I absolutely loved this, and playing it more for laughs was definitely a welcome step.

Favourite Kirby guy was in red behind Jeff Goldblum during the arena scenes, although the female assistants with their hair nowhere near their head were great too.

Darragh otm here, people need to catch up.

I love that they don't explain it in this movie, because who the f cares, right? It's a bunch of squabbling near-immortals punching each other in another dimension. It's all a game to them.

i understand this one is kinda funny.

it also made $400 million globally this weekend, which is indisputably tragic.

Wtf, Taika did a Tedx talk in 2010

https://youtu.be/pL71KhNmnls

1 Thor: Ragnarok
2 A Bad Moms Christmas
3 Jigsaw$
4 Tyler Perry's Boo 2! A Madea Halloween
5 Geostorm
6 Happy Death Day
7 Thank You for Your Service
8 Blade Runner 2049
9 Only The Brave
10 Let there be Light

Good guys won tbh.

That top 5, Thor aside, is as ugly a top 5 as I have ever seen.

eh, that's basically a list of what's in theaters now. other than thor is anything else really raking it in?

It?

Greta Gerwig's film had a big limited opening.

The rest of the top 10 has its share of ugly too.

How ever did people decide between Thank You For Your Service and Let There Be Light?

That's the weekend box office: $123m / $17m / $7m / $5m / $3m / $3m / $2m / $2m / $2m / $2m (and more rounded up than down).

Greta Gerwig's film had a big limited opening.

Oxymorons aside, in the absence of Thor how much of the $123m do you think would have fallen through to her?

xxp The first doesn't sounds as bad as its title. I mean, I'm not expecting it to be good...

"I'm sorry, the old thor can't come to the phone right now, Why? Oh, BECAUSE HE'S DEAD." pic.twitter.com/dl7NhP8nC5

— harman. (@woIgang) November 6, 2017

I was thinking about this movie and specifically about Marvel's villain problem. Given her power, Hera was taken down pretty easily, so I wonder if she might be brought back in Infinity Wars as a suitable partner for Thanos. Because I seriously doubt they're going to introduce his plan to destroy the universe (if they do) to impress the actual embodiment of Death (though who knows?). Would play well into Hera's repeated emphasis on being the Goddess of Death. Just sayin'.

Hela was taken down easily? They had to destroy their entire realm!

I mean, it might not mean shit to us, but imagine if the ending of the first Avengers movie was relocating everyone on earth to a spaceship and then blowing up the planet

Yeah, but it was going to be destroyed anyway. By a dude who earlier in the movie Thor beat pretty easily (while he was smaller, but still). In fact, why did Hera even fight him? She could have just hit the road, too.

because it's her nature

I guess? Still think given the build up that it would take more than that. I mean, Thor can hold his own against the Hulk, and Hera took out the entire arm by herself. Plus I assume she has magic powers and stuff, too.

you're mixing your pantheons dude

Whoops, I was hella wrong.

all Surtr needed to do was break up Asgard itself, which is Hela's source of power. So of course she would try to stop him, but as Thor figured out, the outcome was never in question. This was all explained at various points (and I had to get up to pee 2x)

I think I missed the part about her getting power from Asgard. in fact, I already can't remember how she got out of prison. And emerged fully strong and powerful on Earth.

Odin died. She got free

the bit about her getting her power from Asgard was mentioned about a million times

But where was she imprisoned? In a sort of Phantom Zone? Because she appeared on Earth before she returned to Asgard, the source of all her powers. Or - and forgive me, I haven't really paid attention to the intricacies of the character in the movie or the comics, clearly - is it just the very existence of Asgard that gives her power? but not Loki or Thor?

It's not explained where she's imprisoned. She appears on earth because it's convenient from a plot perspective

we can infer from the ending that it's the existence of Asgard that gives her power, although not necessarily all her power

the character's backstory is different in the comics

She appeared there because we needed to see her beat Thor easily to set up the movie

It wasn't mentioned but I'd assume she was in Niflheim, aka "Hel", Hela's realm

See, that's what I mean. She easily beat Thor, but Thor easily beat that devil guy, at least when he was smaller. Is it less that Hela beat the giant devil guy, and more the devil guy destroyed Asgard, the source of her powers? Maybe it needed an extra beat about what happened when she was driven down with a giant sword, though I suppose it's not that important. Though from a Layman's perspective, after all that buildup even giant sword wouldn't seem to cut it.

I don't know, it all boils down to Marvel's villain problem. Because God knows when they finally introduced Thanos, it would suck if he was destroyed by all the superheroes teaming up and punching him a lot.

Did you miss the part where the prophecy of Ragnarok included Surtur gaining access to the eternal flame, held in Asgard, that would bring about the end? Thor knew of the prophecy and thought he was defeating Surtur preemptively at the beginning of the film, setting up the Chekov's gun effect by putting Surtur's crown in Asgard.

Ragnarok is:
1. The worst thing that can befall Asgard
2. Something the Asgardians are constantly attempting to avoid
3. Inevitable

It had nothing to do with his sword, it had to do with him getting to that eternal flame. Same flame Hela used to bring back her undead army. This was all spelled out right at the beginning of the movie.

It's also why Odin was wistfully saying "Asgard is its people" and they kept returning to that -- he knew the prophecy was about to kick off.

i am the only literally one that cared abt asgard, on the thread, in niflheim and in asgard

I get why Ragnarok happened, and why Hela didn't realize she was part of something bigger than her conquest of Asgard. I missed how she was so easily (relatively speaking) defeated. Was she the only Asgardian who got their power from Asgard? So the Surtur demon god, once he got the flame, was an indestructible vessel of doom? I would have liked to see the Hulk beat him up!

Also, what did Surtur stand on after he destroyed Asgard? Bet he didn't think of that!

bro

(Also, if Asgard is not a place it is a people, then Hela draws her power from ... the people? That she kills?)

Anyway, yeah, this was a fun movie, I just like to try and decipher the Marvel movie mythology.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc3z3my93D1qghvp9o4_250.jpg

I never finished the Simonson run. Surtur fully powered-up in his final form has Godkiller-level power, right? He’s able to take out both Asgard & Hela(who already got beaten up and lightninged-out a couple times) since he finished working on his Twilight: New Dawn sword?

http://media.comicbook.com/uploads1/2014/07/simonson-thor-surtur-103424.png

So the Surtur demon god, once he got the flame, was an indestructible vessel of doom

Yes, quite literally. (Graphically?)

http://comicsalliance.com/files/2011/04/thor01.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e73uesIwOLc

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61T4GAet4FL.jpg

I saw this last night & loved it...the humor was A+

Blanchett as Hela was uhmayzing. That costume & omgggg the HEADPIECE (hearteyes emoji)
And i loooooved that she got to get a few laughs, she’s v funny irl and doesnt often get the chance to show her comedic chops

Tessa’s Valkrie was great, I honestly would have loved even more from her. And what an entrance. Cold as ice.

Goldblum was at his majestic Goldblumiest...like an eccentric space peacock. Eat yer heart out Ming the Merciless

Thor & Hulk fight was everything I hoped, especially loved the way they played off against Loki visibly crapping his dacks up in the VIP suite

Hulk butt? HULK BUTT! :D

Much as I loved it though I did feel the story showed it’s seams in places... GoldblumWorld was almost fully realized but once Hela is in Asgard a lot of those scenes felt oddly thin in contrast, and the Heimdall stuff felt weirdly tacked on. Most noticeably Skurge had a whole skit at the beginning and then barely said a word for the rest of the movie. I was sad bcz I love Karl Urban! Hela deserved a chattier/more developed sidekick imo.

^^ great take

it's by no means perfect but it is plenty charming. the heimdall stuff was, like, stakes i guess plus ASGARD IS ITS PEOPLE but for a bunch of gods they were pretty generic villagers.

wonder if there was some "what are *you* the god of" setup stuff that got cut from the Hela Takes A Hostage scene. like "i'm... i'm... i'm the god of successful errands oh please don't hurt me" "well I'm the goddess of DEATH OFF WITH HER HEAD" kinda stuff.

if not there should have been lol. would have set up the climax a little better.

true!

wonder who else was hiding in that cave that they could totally find immediately with their fancy spaceship sensors but somehow Hela had no idea where everyone could be...

god of good hair days
god of persistent little flowers that poke up from under stones
god of window treatments that really come together
god of twitter beefs
god of washing a hat
god of transforming faces into hearts

god of rainbows
god of sunshowers
god of fog

veg & rog have described very well some other elements at the root of my mild sadness re asgard in this film

didn't really enjoy this. felt less like a movie than clumsily cobbled together comedic quips, and Thor acting very un-Thor-like.

and why was the chief antagonist (Hella) missing for so much of it.

Going to take my daughter and her friend to this in a few hours

I assume 10yo will be able to follow this despite not seeing the first two

Yeah.

and why was the chief antagonist (Hella) missing for so much of it.

― fuck you, your hat is horrible (Neanderthal), Sunday, November 12, 2017

she was hella missing

went to this last night and the power went out about 25 minutes from the end. got passes obviously but don't know if I feel like sitting through almost an hour and a half of this again any time soon. It's fine, whatever; but it's awfully ugly looking. Why are Marvel films so ugly all of a sudden (maybe not all of a sudden; Doctor Strange looked good; I think Spiderman looked good; but this was more of an ugly hodgepodge pallete akin to an Avengers film). CGI was all kind of shitty looking too. I dunno, maybe I wasn't in the mood.

also Hella's extreme 'i am evil, let me move around evilly, stroking things with an evil stroke, and glaring evilly' shit really bugged

I think my favorite scene was a great looking flash back to the Valkyrie's fighting her.

There is some online analysis of Marvel's trademark bland color correction.

they used the better color grading in this one

their studio default was “fresh out the camera” in prior avengers outing

I assume 10yo will be able to follow this despite not seeing the first two

I couldn't

What did you people want, Speed Racer?

Enjoyed this take:

http://endlessyarning.com/2017/11/12/thor-ragnarok-indigenous-film/

everyone wants Speed Racer

speed racer > any marvel movie

Discounting yr film opinions from here on out fyi

Wachowskis are terrible filmmakers, some of the worst

bound was good.

bound is great, first matrix fresh. everything else sucks to to an almost inexplicable degree.

Bound is laughable 90s lesbian fetish nonsense crossed w lamentable 90s crime film plot and terrible dirrction so no

And i like jennifer tilly

pretty sure we have a thread on that topic

since people seem to regularly bitch about the color treatments on MCU movies though, I'm just sorta curious as to what the model is people are expecting with films that are adapting 4-color Bay Dot images, printed on extremely cheap paper, for the screen

well the point is that movies look a lot less vibrant than their four colour forebears

xpost I saw Bound once, back when, but I recall it has a great script, and I like almost anything with Joey Pants in it, even (well, almost) Eddie and the Cruisers.

Interesting to think of Bound as lesbian fetish nonsense by a director (both directors?) who have since transitioned to female.

This was fun, no complaints

I think it was mainly the Grand Master color scheme that I found so ugly. the planet, ugly. his outfit, ugly. granted, it did kind of look like a mid-70's comic book. but it was still ugly, compared to how good the Captain America movies looked, or even the first Thor movie.

mark s otm upthread about smartass quippy thor and other asgardians

this was fine but the further these movies get from that tension established in the first the more i lose interest

but like all marvel movies, which i’ve

enjoyed i’ll never think of it again after a week

Interesting to think of Bound as lesbian fetish nonsense by a director (both directors?) who have since transitioned to female.

= things I was shockingly old when I learned

Walking out of #ThorRagnarok w/my 8-yr-old:

Him: My favorite character was the guy who looked like Jesus
Me: Thor?
H: No
Me: @MarkRuffalo??
H: No dad—the black guy who protected everyone from the bad guys. I think that's what Jesus would do
Me: @idriselba?
H: Yes, Jesus guy
Me: pic.twitter.com/JYSStbDgic

— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@MuslimIQ) November 13, 2017

looool

<3

Utterly love that.

Ah, even better

Actually, I do have a sick pair of sandals somewhere...🙏🏾 https://t.co/wByVcyW36p

— Idris Elba (@idriselba) November 13, 2017

Review from my Normie Friend pic.twitter.com/P5DFcP83oW

— Peter Labuza (@labuzamovies) November 13, 2017

second comment says said normie is a hedge fund manager, so I am skeptical they enjoy any movies

I saw this with my friend who is a Marvel fanboy and while he liked Ragnorak, he preferred Civil War. Who could possibly prefer Civil War to this movie?

people who are overly invested in the plot machinations of a shared movie universe

Civil War had an incomprehensible plot, a terrible villain, characters shifting allegiances and motivations for no reason at all, weirdly CGI'd young Downey Jr., and just about one scene worth re-watching.

I mean, for all the joeks in this one, the plotting and the characterization was really tight, and though I wish Blanchett had a little more to do, Hela is easily a top 5 Marvel villain (low bar, I know).

Finally saw this. The fact that Shakey actually said

This was fun, no complaints

― Οὖτις, Sunday, November 12, 2017 7:54 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

about a Marvel movie pretty much says it all.

Only plot point I had an issue with: Loki somehow failing to ever notice Hulk's omnipresent uber-fame for an entire month. Are you telling me they don't have social media on Sakaar? Please.

breezy ridiculousness that looks good is a fine approach for these kinds of characters imo. The one shot that I felt really had some serious artistry and iconic resonance to it was the flight of the valkyries.

One of the cut plot bits was that the blonde Valkyrie we see defending one of the main characters was actually her partner and the Valkyrie we know from the comics, where her partner takes her name after, wasn’t it?

I noticed that and assumed something got left on the cutting room floor yeah

I think there was a scene of them sharing a room or some morning after flirtation, but it had to go.

I think that was another girl, due to the blonde Valkyrie being dead for thousands of years.

Tessa Thompson says she thought of her character and the dying valkyrie as having had a relationship, but there wasn't a scene spelling it out or anything

Something about Loki in a black suit was very

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A8zmM6sCEAAYqjR.jpg

lol

hiddleston’s hair was appalling in this

this was great, grand silliness. i laughed a ton and was delighted by many things, mainly the colors and design work on grand master's planet. that whole middle of the movie was a real visual feast, the kind of thing we should be expecting from every single CGI movie imho. i like the idea of these movies entering their mannerist phase where none of the source material is taken seriously at all, and even the idea of being an action-adventure leavened by jokes is overtaken by their becoming gag-a-minute comedies with a lot of action flying at your face. the only downside is that the action itself becomes kind of stakes-less but it's visually enjoyable in the way of a fireworks display. appropriately, fireworks displays figure into it.

mind you, i can simultaneously see the argument for it being cowardly. it would be nice to live in a world where a thor movie could take itself as seriously as a cecil b. demille epic or something. not being as invested in thor i'm maybe too quick to discount that. more generally i do think it's lame how LITTLE range these movies actually can achieve between them, and i thought the jokey stuff in dr. strange really denied it a chance at greatness. for whatever reason it worked for me here just because it was so generously colorful and interested in pleasing you. now do that, minus most of the jokes, and get even weirder, and a decent fantastic four movie could actually be possible.

also everyone was gorgeous especially the top of cate blanchett's head. veg otm about that and also about the thinness of the asgard stuff and of karl urban. so asgard is like... two hundred people? and they slip out of town and hide in the woods, and then slip back into town and wait around on the bridge for all the final setpieces? it's like a scaled-up version of one of my favorite bad movie tropes, where the underground rebellion consists of about seven people in dirty clothes who lurk about one dingy set before launching the revolution. (which this movie also did with the gladiators! but it did it mostly off-camera and it was a gag.)

There are no stakes in any of these movies and there hasn't been since avengers one

It's a major problem, far more so than having the temerity to make them comedies.

Dr strange was bad for a number of reasons but the jokes almost made it tolerable

I think they're giving us extra helpings of froth of late because one or both of the upcoming Avengers films are likely to go dark. Would not be surprised if some of these characters are nearing the ends of their respective roads.

Well it’s been clear enough that some contracts are wrapping up.

going to rewatch this today

just remembered the "sad!" joke and am embarrassed by the fact that it made me grin, then and now.

funniest line delivery by far: hemsworth's bro-eyed attempt at praising the valkyries.

best gag organic to the movie: thor and banner stepping out of a side alley to discover entire population thronging with hulk fever.

My favorite gag was Banner jumping out of the plane.

Director just sorta wanderin' about

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQZuCqOWOi4

My favorite gag was Banner jumping out of the plane.

― the Hannah Montana of the Korean War (DJP), Monday, November 20, 2017

hard to top that one

in fairness "YES!/friend from work" would have been been a banger if we hadn't already seen it 20 times in the trailers

honorable mention for the running gag on ruffalo's legendary junk

One of my favourite scenes is Thor trying not to freak out the dehulkified Banner, but pissing him off with "the sun's setting" stuff.

I liked what they did with the Hulk as well, it's a good tweak to ask what happens if you disconnect the "And when he gets less angry, he stops being the Hulk" valve. It is a shift from the two Avengers films, where you've at best got this on-board nuclear warhead, but he's still pretty dangerous - he's in battle or in his enormous playcenter most of the time, but the part where he fucks up the Quinjet just by existing in it was good and a little sad.

Also 'good and a little sad' was "Send Help" - I think the first time in these films that we've seen that the two brothers have actually spent a lot of time together as adults and have a playbook for adventuring situations?

I liked Skurge too - I thought they trod a decent line between comic relief and "I am really not sure about this" - but then I heart Karl Urban in general.

Only plot point I had an issue with: Loki somehow failing to ever notice Hulk's omnipresent uber-fame for an entire month. Are you telling me they don't have social media on Sakaar? Please.

Okay, well we've had social media for about ten years and the jury's out on whether we'll have it in another ten, but also this would work with just... media? It's not like you need to be in the underground resistance to hear about the Hulk, the Grandmaster is very keen on him. There's an enormous stone statue of his face, which is basically the original medium :)

oops, yeah, that's a little sloppy. worth it for "I have to get off this planet" though.

i hadn't seen a single trailer so all the gags were fresh and nearly all got at least a giggle from me. :D

Don't know if I missed anything but it seemed like they introduced the "Hulk will be Hulk forever if he Hulks up again" as a quite clunky stakes-raising device early on and then at the end he chooses to anyway and not much is made of the implications?

for whatever reason it worked for me here just because it was so generously colorful and interested in pleasing you. now do that, minus most of the jokes, and get even weirder, and a decent fantastic four movie could actually be possible.

this is v otm btw

my wife yesterday, convincing our son to see something he didn't want to see: "I go see all of your movies. I went and saw half of Thor Ragnarok. What is that? I didn't even know Thor had a last name". And then we all had a hearty laugh that she thought Ragnarok was Thor's last name.

"My cousin, Thor Ragnarok. 'Rag' is an ancient term and--"

Of course now I want to know what movie did she want to see.

"Don't know if I missed anything but it seemed like they introduced the "Hulk will be Hulk forever if he Hulks up again" as a quite clunky stakes-raising device early on and then at the end he chooses to anyway and not much is made of the implications?" true but also you never see him return to Banner, do you? I can't remember.

It was Lady Bird, which we did see (xpost)

I thought Banner looked at the situation and decided that the risk of possibly sacrificing himself forever was worth it if it meant saving the Asgardians, similar to Skurge’s defection from Hela,followed by his open rebellion so the ship could take off.

What is that? I didn't even know Thor had a last name

did you tell her his real last name

yes, his real name is Thor Thorsterston

btw can we go back to how fantastic everyone in this was? Motivations weren't overwrought, the plot flowed from the plausible ways in which the characters responded to events around them, and Cate Blanchett was SPECTACULAR and Karl Urban made a throwaway part into a compelling story arc.

otm

Thor's attempt to banter his way into everyone's hearts was hilarious. I would like to see him paired off with literally any other Avenger, which isn't something I would have thought before watching this; his easy chemistry not only with Hulk/Banner, but also Valkyrie, Loki, and Strange really pulled me into the movie and made me wonder what a Thor/Ant-Man or Thor/Black Panther or Thor/Black Widow outing would look like.

The uneasy confused banter of Australian royalty speaking with charity volunteers

I feel like I say this every time Thor shows up in a Marvel movie, but Chris Hemsworth was such an amazing find. They could so easily have cast some anonymous, uncharismatic meathead in the role and sunk the franchise right out of the gate, but they went all the way in the other direction and hired a dude who can deftly handle a whole range of tones. And who's legitimately funny, and not in that 'he's so funny for a dude with 42" pythons!' way.

you mean they could have cast liam hemsworth instead of chris hemsworth, basically

Dyed hemsworth for bond tbh

karl urban or gtfo

keith urban or gtfo

OMG wait are they brothers too

sure, why not

I do love Karl urban too tbf

you know who’d be a good bond? jaden smith

Mr. Smith, I am so honored to discover that you post here, I've seen every episode of your series The French Prince at least one time each.

Having Hemsworth as the leading man was def a big plus for Waititi to get the tone & humor across. Rest of the cast too but having the main guy pull it off so essily is a big plus. Aussies & NZers working together to make everyone laugh etc etc
The super dry laid-back humor is the thing I loved the most. I was ready for it from the trailer & loving Waititi already but halfway through I even found myself getting kinda homesick due to the quality antipodean lols <3

Karl Urban made a throwaway part into a compelling story arc.

he did uneasy well tbf

He should have been trimmed down to be just a side-joke comedy character; actually building up his arc about being the Executioner and being cowardly and in over his head as a bad guy was silly. All time taken away from Hela actually executing an evil plan and/or Idris Elba doing stuff with the Asgardians to make that whole crisis feel a bit more real. Small gripes, though.

I feel like Chaw’s review exemplifies what I’ll call the “people who love film vs. people who love movies” dichotomy. I’m surprised that he liked the Dr Strange bit so much, and noticed things I forgot, which almost puts the lie to his argument. Here it is:

http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2017/11/thor-ragnarok.html

*raises hand*

Yes James? And the Blecchs?

https://roguetelemetry.tumblr.com/post/170015148585/fyeahmarvel-thor-ragnarok-2017-revolution

Which apart from anything else reminds me that I haven't mentioned how great Rachel House is in her smaller role here.

Nicely done

https://io9.gizmodo.com/director-taika-waititi-offers-a-hilarious-introduction-1822734334

i love him

Lol love his description of the movie (linked from the comments of that post):

“Really, when I look at the story of Thor, how I kind of get myself in there and figure out I can tell the story, is actually looking at it in terms of an indie film. It’s about a guy trying to get home because there’s someone in his house, and he’s got to sort that out. And along the way he’s got his annoying brother, a drunk chick, and some bipolar kid with him. [Laughs.] And he’s just trying to get home. So that’s the way into the story, and then it’s how do I apply those things into spaceships and explosions.”

https://www.businessinsider.in/The-director-of-Thor-Ragnarok-says-the-movie-is-so-unconventional-Mark-Ruffalo-joked-theyd-both-get-fired/articleshow/61249691.cms

Overly charming at this stage imo

the now overrated Taika Watiti

Wish someone had alerted me that the acceptable window for liking things had narrowed again, would've stopped liking this pos weeks ago.

yr overrated xpost

OL otm and VG vmic

:D

finally saw this last night. damn good! colorful as heck! lots of incredibly designed shots. like all of these movies have a CGI monster flying through a cloudy sky but you can tell they had an artist actually design it to look cool af rather than a muddy mess. imo Goldblum was actually the weakest part of the movie and seemed to be kinda coasting, but then again it really fit the overall feel of the movie. the Hulk/Banner stuff was incredible too...

also the second time they brought in "Immigrant Song" i was like "This again" for all of .0002 seconds before succumbing to the sheer awesome spectacle. if any movie gets to use that song it should be this

i got suckered into watching this even though i am sick of superhero shit bc i like taika waititi's other movies and it was supposed to be more comedic and everyone kept saying "it's actually pretty good!" and man this is a mediocre movie. i won't get into it too much bc it sucks when everyone likes something and someone else comes in and shits up the thread with grouchiness, but the cgi hulk looks SO SO SO BAD. i felt embarrassed whenever the cgi hulk was on screen. why did it look so bad?

weirdly i think it looked better on the big screen. definitely noticed the hulk more in this way on netflix viewing.

modern CGI all looks way better on the big screen, this has been the consensus for years, or so I thought

I'm going in order on the Marvel movies, trying to catch up before Captain Marvel arrives in theaters. Just watched me some Ragnarok and wow this movie owned. i had to watch it twice in a 24 hr period. definitely the best of the Marvel flicks I've seen to date. I already had a built-in appreciation for the Thor movies bc of Hemsworth, who's the MVP of the whole "cinematic universe."

My favorite moment that didn't involve "Immigrant Song" may have been Thor's very "Troll 2"-like "OH...MY...GOD!" when the Grandmaster used the melt stick on his cousin.

3 is the best of the Thors, 2 is the worst of the MCU, and I'm disappointed that 1 holds up less well every time I see it. Hemsworth is always tops, though, for sure.

third is super good its up there with spiderman homecoming

i loved 1 when I saw it and thought it was one of the best at the time. Haven't revisited it. But 3 was great, I saw it 1 1/2 times in a theater because the power went out 3/4 of the way through the first time, and I didn't mind at all.

my kid has been rewatching a ton of these lately and one thing I'll say is fuck the actual AVengers and Captain American movies just all bleed into each other, I have a very hard time remembering what happened in which one. They're not very individually distinct the way Thor 1, Ant Man, Guardians, etc are.

yeah i think that the smaller cameo efforts benefit a lot from director quirk and feel in a way the big weighty plotvomit ones dont

thats avengers and imo captain america sequels which are basically avengers movies, tho ppl here loved winter warrior for some reason

I did not

you are otm

Οὖτις and deems, the Statler and Waldorf of The Marvel Show.

we're here to praise thor 3 tbf

This movie got me briefly back on board with comic book movies, but after watching Avengers/Black Panther etc I'm done until Taika Waititi does another one.

Hemsworth's comic timing was an ideal match for Waititi.

https://66.media.tumblr.com/bc64a9d70a846b2d383ae008ab07f787/tumblr_inline_pc0hy86Dvw1u76kd4_540.gif

the MCU completely aside, this is one of the best science fiction movies in recent years.

otm

Y'all nuts, Captain America 2: Weekend Warrior is grebt

the MCU completely aside, this is one of the best science fiction movies in recent years.

this is not a science fiction movie

Because it is science fact iirc.

are there spaceships in it? then it is science fiction. that’s just how it works

fine, it's also one of the best fantasy films in recent years

the fantasy elements are the least-developed though. like wtf is asgard even, a town of a couple thousand people, a palace, and some nearby hills for them to hide in?

I hate that this wasn't terrible. I don't want there to be any more of these movies and it's obscene that there would be one now that's not terrible.

― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Friday, November 3, 2017 4:00 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

What a strange opinion to have.

― El Tomboto, Friday, November 3, 2017 4:03 PM (one year ago)

Even stranger ... I deeply hate that I have basically only fond memories of this one and would watch it again. This is not acceptable.

If they hadn't completely flubbed the intro of Svartalfheim and Vanaheim in The Dork World they could've made some headway towards developing the cosmology of the realms in the films.

I mean Thor's world is a rich tapestry that they're just sorta skimming the surface of in the MCU. This could basically be a more lighthearted LOTR-esque sub-franchise if they really put their backs into it.

Ragnarok was great fun but really it was more an adaptation of Planet Hulk than it was a Thor movie per se.

saw first thor a few weeks back for the first time

its bad and it looks bad

I finally saw this and it was A+ for a Marvel movie. Surprisingly funny rather than merely amusing. Hemsworth is great. Jeff Goldblum needs to be in more stuff like this. LOL at Damon cameo.

Also the color palette was great. It's refreshing to see a big budget studio film that was so unafraid to just go there. Blanchett was obviously enjoying herself (and the paycheck).

When Heimdall says "behold, my stuff" before picking up two assault rifles, that's a reference to Spring Breakers, right?

Oh shit, it's not Heimdall. Karl Urban / Skurge of course.

mark s otm in the thread

luc besson shd have directed this (fifth element luc besson): same actors except swap out urban and goldblum, just get rid

Ragnarok is a fun movie, I love the riotous colour palette which feels really right for a comic book adaptation and a nice counter to all the gritty grey superhero shizzle. Hemsworth surprised me with some comedy chops and it does seem like the cast had a laugh throughout the production. That said, it doesn't land every joke and there is kinda an insufferable quality to some of the chuminess, the 'arent we all so achingly funny' vibe. At least that what the making of... video smacks of.... I think it's interesting and a little telling of the script that one of the funniest lines 'he's a friend from work' actually came from an ill child visiting set on one of these make a wish things, chatting with the actors.... they should have hired that kid as script consultant immediately, Goldblum needed some jokes badly rather than relying heavily on his schtick.