Od's Blood! Hath ILE no thread for anticipation of Kenneth Branagh's THOR? Verily?

LOS ANGELES — "Star Wars" co-star Natalie Portman is storming back into action films with a role in the comic-book adaptation "Thor."

The 28-year-old Portman has been cast as Jane Foster, who was a nurse and first love of the title character in the Marvel Comics. According to Marvel Studios, the character is being updated for the movie version of "Thor," in which the Norse warrior is cast down to Earth to live among humans.

Chris Hemsworth stars as Thor in the movie, which begins shooting early next year. It is due in theaters May 20, 2011. Kenneth Branagh (BRAN'-nah) is directing "Thor."

I'm looking forward to this tbh

Not because I think it will be good, I just am

cosine hoos

there better be some major walt simonson flavor to this (without beta ray bill, that is)

(BRAN'-nah)
(BRAN'-nah)
(BRAN'-nah)
(BRAN'-nah)
(BRAN'-nah)

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

Preview image above reminds me: I really really hope he nabs Brian Blessed to play Volstagg. Or Odin. Fuck it, whatever, just let Brian Blessed be in this.

[i]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n253/justinorde/acidtest/page0_blog_entry18_1.jpg[/img]

argh

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n253/justinorde/acidtest/page0_blog_entry18_1.jpg

maybe debut day 2010 will coincide with realtime ragnarok? iraqnarok?

can i at least see it before the world ends

a friend of a friend is married to blessed's daughter. i've heard second hand this amazing story which ends with them all being together on christmas day just after they got married and blessed is almost uncontrollably excited about the present he's got his daugher and her husband for their new house. everyone is around the tree, opening their presents, happily talking, saving the big one until last, and blessed is getting increasingly fidgetty until he's all "open it, open it!" in that voice, and he can't wait any longer. so she goes over to open it, and it's a massive present, maybe a washing machine or something? and she opens it, and it's a 4 foot tall porcelain chinese dragon.

More Brian Blessed stories pls

LOTS more.

Do we not have a Brian Blessed thread? Forsooth?

For some reason I'd really like to see Chris Eigeman as Loki in this.

Oh there's a Brian Blessed thread, trust me.

This really needs to open on a Thursday.

http://nerdcityonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/thordonofrio.jpg

I almost feel guilty about talking people into watching Branagh's Frankenstein, but it is so funny.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Lather, rinse, repeat.

There's a book coming out (I forget what it's called) in a month oir so which features a short story about a werewolf with lots of hair and a deep voice who keeps getting mistaken in public for Brian Blessed.

I wonder if Branagh will read all 600 odd issues of Thor?

Does this guy have an actual career anywhere?:

Well, here's a sign that Thor could be really, really good: they fired Stuart Townsend from it. You'll remember that Townsend also got sacked from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, where he had actually played Aragorn for a couple of days of shooting. That fantasy film went on to be pretty darn good, so maybe Thor will be just as good.

The official story is that Townsend left over creative differences, but how different could his creative take be on one of the members of The Warriors Three, a truly tertiary group of Thor characters? Ain't It Cool says that Townsend got fired after arriving to a screen test late. SIX HOURS late. Yeah, that'll do it.

btw Brian Blessed appears to be playing neither Odin (Anthony Hopkins) nor Volstagg (Ray Stevenson). I don't know if I can deal with a Blessedless THOR ;_;

Serious director is serious:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0131100482ed970c-600wi

"It's going very, very well," Branagh said Wednesday. "We're in New Meixco now where we have a contemporary Earth part of our story. I guess we're two-thirds of the way through the story and at this stage of the game what's surprising and delighting me is the way the cast, the ensemble, has fused together. It's kind of an interesting combination of very young and very experienced people and the double-up of that, it seems to me, is there is a lot of fire in the movie. It doesn't take itself too seriously, it doesn't try to be too solemn."

Uh-huh.

And to answer Jel's question a while back:

"Growing up, my single comic book passion was Thor," says the 49-year-old actor and filmmaker who surprised many industry observers by taking on the director's job on the big-budget adaptation of the Marvel Comics thunder god. "From my time in Belfast as a kid, that's the first time I came across that comic, really, exclusively, I don't know why, but it struck a chord. I was drawn to it. I liked all the dynastic drama."

well that's encouraging I guess

not setting my hopes too high. Kirby-era Thor is some of my favorite stuff ever tho

oh, it's gonna be awesome, like transformers 2.

If there's Kirby-style Fafnir in this I will be so happy.

The passion. Or not. (I vote not.)

Hammertime

Dear me:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0134856c4cac970c-600wi

Branagh continues to burble:

On Saturday, July 24 , Marvel Studios has the final studio presentation in the expo's biggest room, Hall H, and "Thor" director Kenneth Branagh will use that climactic slot not just to introduce some of his cast -- a cast that includes Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins, but its unlikely that all three will be in San Diego -- but also to persuade skeptical fans that 3-D will add new dimensions to the 2011 blockbuster, and not just in the obvious way.

"We came to feel that in our case 3-D could be the very good friend of story and character for a different kind of experience," Branagh said, taking a break from post-production. The filmmaker said the terminology of the 3-D process initially made him cringe -- at first, it was "math and physics and way over my head," he said with a chuckle -- but then he started to pulse with the unexpected artistic opportunities.

"It's another draft of the story that can reveal itself in a different way," he said. "I had a healthy degree of skepticism up front ... I've become somebody extremely excited about working with possibilities of doing it this way."

not diggin the look

Is the picture meant to be hilarious?

It's Branagh, who the hell knows.

That looks more like Star Trek than Thor, pretty awful!

Who's the big bad in this movie? Are they gonna do Surtur, or just Loki?

I know someone who is playing "Pet Store Clerk" in this film. They did a big open casting for extra's here too (NM).

Pet Store Clerk is def Thor's most fearsome antagonist.

what the (re: the pic)

Do you not appreciate his mighty hammer there?

grey is not a good color scheme for Thor

would assume they're just doing Loki (that's him on the right, yeah?) Surtur would be kinda ridiculous/too obscure

Yup, that is Loki. Hurrah sidelong glances.

I can't tell if they are about to make out or if they're both checking out Odin's ass

"They call him One-Eye."

was Thor's winged helmet deemed too gay or waht

this looks like it's based on Marvel Ultimate Thor rather than classic Marvel 616 Thor

god why do I know these things

xp He doesn't wear it inside!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3554/3615798499_551b6b3766.jpg

I see Hulk Hogan is back on the steroids.

really missed a trick not casting Kevin McKidd

why does that statue of Thor include Capt America's shield...?

Ultimate Thor is this dude who may be the son of Odin and may actually be completely insane. IIRC, at one point he beats up both Iron Man and Captain America.

for some reason i'd got the idea idris elba was playing thor

"We came to feel that in our case 3-D could be the very good friend of story and character for a different kind of experience,which way the wind was blowing," Branagh said, taking a break from post-production.

I wouldn't say Surtur is "too obscure", he's the main villain in the best known Thor story arc there is. He isn't any more obscure than Dr. Octopus or whoever the villains in the the two Iron Man movies were.

I'd say Enchantress would make a lot more sense

I wouldn't say Surtur is "too obscure", he's the main villain in the best known Thor story arc there is

lol Tuomas - anybody who's never read a Thor comic has no idea who Surtur is. Loki is at least a more commonly known mythological figure and also traditional Thor's arch nemesis.

In related news, the new Incredible Hulk to be...

http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/mark-ruffalo-in-late-stage-talks-to-be-marvels-new-hulk-in-the-avengers/

haha waht

I thought he was dead

I wouldn't say Surtur is "too obscure", he's the main villain in the best known Thor story arc there is

lol Tuomas - anybody who's never read a Thor comic has no idea who Surtur is.

Well yeah, but the same applied to almost all superhero villains (except maybe The Joker and Lex Luthor) before they appeared in movies.

And Loki is more than just "traditional Thor's arch nemesis". He's the trickster god, in Norse mythology he sometimes sides with the Æsir, and sometimes goes against them. Marvel changed him into a more pure villain, though I liked how Simonson handled him in the Surtur saga: we see him both scheming against Thor and taking his side in the battle with Surtur. IMO that's much more in line with the traditional depiction of Loki.

Well yeah, but the same applied to almost all superhero villains

most of Spiderman's rouge's gallery has appeared in every Saturday morning cartoon about him; you could actually argue because of this that, while Green Goblin is his traditional nemesis from a storyline standpoint, Doctor Octopus is the villain most people would associate with him

lolwut

maybe if it was an inverse-Hulk, where some huge dude got hit by radiation and now whenever he gets angry, he becomes really skinny and frail

oh man plz plz plz give it to the Ruff

hough I liked how Simonson handled him in the Surtur saga: we see him both scheming against Thor and taking his side in the battle with Surtur. IMO that's much more in line with the traditional depiction of Loki.

this is more in line with Kirby's depiction actually

I am seriously struggling to avoid actual LOLs here:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef013485894ab0970c-600wi

Here's a first-look image of the majestic throne of Odin (Anthony Hopkins) in the city of Asgard, where Thor (Chris Hemsworth) kneels before his father in the 2011 film from Disney's Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures.

...

I talked to "Thor" director Kenneth Branagh not long ago and he was genuinely excited about his first trip to Comic-Con and the chance to stand up into front of the Hall H audience as part of the Marvel program. "Because of what I've heard, I can't wait... the celebration and the incredible energy and enthusiasm and knowledge and passion for everything that goes on there. I'm excited to be part of that and I feel privileged to be able to go and take look. I'm keen to see that passion and enthusiasm."

With tongue-in-cheek -- at least I think it was tongue-in-cheek -- Feige said he might hit the stage with a sartorial nod to the Con's cosplay traditions. "I'm looking forward to seeing how people are dressed... Kevin and I are not prepared to reveal what costume we'll be wearing but obviously I've insisted that we all must wear one."

Help.

Anyway, nice to know that Asgard can be found on the Strip near the Bellagio.

color scheme is all wrong

Also, great shoulder pads there.

why does this whole thing look like a Met opera

As a friend of mine just said: "Daaaaamn. I bet they have low riders in the carriage area, too."

And yet another:

http://www-deadline-com.vimg.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/thor11-1024x682.jpg

Maybe the whole movie's set there.

Trying to get the steampunk kids in with all that burnished brass.

Punishingly long and boring trailer that pretty much confirms all my worst fears.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/07/29/comic-con-trailer-for-thor/

veering a little too close to Chronicles of Riddick for comfort.

That doesn't look as bad as I thought, tbh. Though the Asgardian design still sucks: they should be rugged Vikings, not poncey faux Romans.

I understand why they chose Branaugh, but I don't trust him.

and nothing about that trailer has swayed me.

I liked the music - it's a bit Electralane-y and then a bit Metallica-esque and then it's kind of late Led Zep.

I couldn't even make it through the whole trailer

squandered opportunity, this one

Not what I would call successful viral marketing:

http://westport.patch.com/articles/man-robs-subway-with-hammer

ah.

man 2011 is gonna be a sucky year to be a superhero

then again maybe hollywood has its shit together enough that they can promo-bluster this and Green Lantern to "underwhelming" numbers rather than "turkey" numbers

This is weird. Guy spends an awful lot of time insisting that his racist website isn't racist.

http://boycott-thor.com/

is your baby racist?

lol was just gonna post that. that got talked about on ilx somewhere, one of the politics threads

this is one of those movies where pretty much all signs point to it being terrible yet I can't help but be intrigued by it

hopkins should wear the lecter mask.

if this sucks and the hulk/s sucked how will The Anengers.. NOT suck? i'm already complete;y baffled by The Avengers' whole concept as a film.

*The Avengers.

So basically they lucked into a massive hit with Iron Man, and then decided spend kajillions to make a Kenneth Branagh film and a World War II actioner with Chris Evans before bringing Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner onto the team for a blowout to end all blowouts directed by JOSS WHEDON

Aaaaaand the inevitable ripoff by Asylum Films. Starring Richard Grieco (!) as Loki (!!!).

especially when their Thor copycat has the Norse god running down the street wielding an Uzi

It's like SuckerPunch but better.

This is actually surprisingly alright. Ridiculous yeah, but it's kind of hard to avoid that with a Thor movie. Some cool little set-ups for The Avengers too.

I have what might be a dumb question but: is there a scene where Anthony Hopkins rumbles out the line "Is he ready?" If he does, I have a story to share.

Sorry Ned, can't remember if that's a specific line but tell away.

Morbidly looking forward to this, but I did go to see Norton's Hulk movie so clearly I have no judgement.

Looks a little cheap though.

Some cool little set-ups for The Avengers too.

This is pretty much the main reason I want to see this.

Won't spoil it but there's a sweet cameo. It's about a million times more fun than Norton's Hulk. There's a fair bit of Hercules In New York style humour but i went with it. Didn't stick around for the post-credit bit but i'm sure it'll be on youtube in a couple of days.

OK sold. Is Brian Blessed still alive? He should have been in this.

Sorry Ned, can't remember if that's a specific line but tell away.

Here's what I've heard what a typical day was kinda like on the shooting -- this story is friend-of-a-friend stuff but the source is v. trustworthy, so. Heard about this over a year ago:

Apparently Branagh was being the obsessive hyperperfectionist are-you-out-of-your-mind director making sure that everyone was delivering a great ACTING! performance, resulting in endless takes and other amusements. Rumor was that this was well beyond trying to 'get it right' and is instead mostly all a series of problems that Branagh had dreamed up and felt he needs to solve. When this story I linked back last April ran I immediately guessed it was due to damage control because of this.

The illustrative example I heard specifics about was this -- so there was a scene filmed which was supposed to be Hopkins saying to Russo, in re: Thor's being old enough or through his training enough or whatever, the line "Is he ready?"

As might be guessed Hopkins, however batshit he is himself (thus), rather knows how to deliver a basic three word line like that and make it work. Everyone else agreed. Branagh, not so much -- so apparently after each take Branagh was going up to Hopkins and saying things like "It needs to be a question, it doesn't FEEL like a question yet, a QUESTION is being asked!" For quite a few takes.

Quite why Hopkins didn't clock the guy I do not know.

Ha, i genuinely don't remember the line so he must never have delivered it to Ken's satisfaction.

can't imagine how this could be anything more than terrible

otoh they did include the Destroyer, which is kinda cool

Can't wait for all the "Is he ready?" outtakes on the DVD.

Audience i saw it with seemed to enjoy it as well fwiw.

Won't spoil it but there's a sweet cameo. It's about a million times more fun than Norton's Hulk.

Stan Lee as Sif's grandmother?

Stan Lee gets a safe dropped on him?

Stan Lee as Don Blake's walking stick?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/movies/kenneth-branaghs-thor-film-of-marvel-comic-hero.html

Mr. Hemsworth, a former soap-opera star who studied Mr. Branagh’s film of “Much Ado About Nothing” for a high school production, said he was intimidated at first to meet his “Thor” director. Instead he said he found an animated and egoless filmmaker who suggested that he prepare for the film by reading Hesse’s “Siddhartha.”

Lot of references to Olivier in this piece

Mr. Hopkins said that, as an actor, “I phone it in a lot as I’m getting older,” but seeing the aura of his old mentor in Mr. Branagh stirred him to invest himself more fully in “Thor.”

so, did Branagh himself write this piece or

Mr. Hemsworth, a former soap-opera star who studied Mr. Branagh’s film of “Much Ado About Nothing” for a high school production

"I knew Keanu would be my role model from then on."

His “Thor” director...an animated and egoless filmmaker who suggested that he prepare for the film by reading Hesse’s “Siddhartha.”

His “Thor” director...an animated and egoless filmmaker who suggested that he prepare for the film by reading Hesse’s “Siddhartha.”

His “Thor” director...an animated and egoless filmmaker who suggested that he prepare for the film by reading Hesse’s “Siddhartha.”

tbf everyone should read Siddhartha (preferably by age 16) so I can't be too mad at him for that

Or there's the not-quite-the-same-thing movie version.

Rene Rodriguez likes.

like anyone ever heard of this comic

yeah its only been published continually since the early 1960s and was created by the most famous american comic book writer-artist team of all time

u take lolbait

(not that I'd ever heard of it)

All the kids are into Norse mythology these days anyway

I saw this last night. Fun but stupid and surprisingly (or maybe not?) Portman was the worst part of the flick.

Serious lack of Beta Ray Bill I felt.

http://www.comics101.com/comics101//news/Comics%20101/335/Beta%20Ray%20Bill%201.jpg

Can I just say my biggest complaint re: Marvel vs Capcom 3 is that Beta Ray Bill isn't one of Thor's alternate skins?

Did the Frog of Thunder make the cut?

Fun but stupid and surprisingly (or maybe not?) Portman was the worst part of the flick.

^^yep and surprisingly, this was the flick that made me realise that, apart from maybe Black Swan, i pretty much don't like Natalie Portman in any movie ever. It's weird, I feel like I've always had this positive impression of her in movies but that's really just her Hollywood image isn't it? Garden State. Star Wars prequels. That one movie with Ashton Kutcher. Closer. V for Vendetta. Anywhere but Here. god she's horrible.

anyway, she was totally lost in this, the only person who did not realise she was in a big dumb THOR movie directed by Kenneth Branagh.

she's crap!

yeah she's awful

p. cool lil movie about cosmic space gods on 8-legged horses hurling thunder bolts at freaking big-ass frost giants

i thought this was gonna be utter dogass, but it was a lot better than i expected (meaning it was moderately entertaining). charismatic cast (featuring the first engaging hopkins performance i can remember in like a decade+), Asgard was pretty cool & cosmic, some whomp-ass fight scenes - it could've been a tighter, more gripping movie in some respects, but it could've been a lot worse too

and portman's totally fine in it and has great chemistry with mr thor, tho their relaysh is p underwritten & perfunctory

guy playin loki really owns in this; also the frost giants are freakin... awesome

branagh uses a lot of dutch angles without really seeming to understand their purpose

movie was very balaeric true

bah, balearic*

idk what that means

it means that if you ask kenneth branagh what he thinks of king lear he just goes "BA!"

Yeah dude playing Loki is excellent. I guess he's gonna be the villain for The Avengers too so i can live with that.

Yeah I could've done without all the dutch angles, but Hemsworth has a fuckton of charm as Thor, the pacing is pretty good, Skaarsgard is surprisingly effective, Elba is great as Heimdahl, and Asgard itself looks so much like a bunch of Kirby panels I wanted to shit myself with joy. That part of it, as well as the dialogue amongst the Warriors Three, Branagh and his team definitely understood. I mean, I could easily picture myself sitting there seeing the Bifrost on a comics page with all of Kirby's technospeak descriptions. And the Asgardian dialogue was just florid enough to sound like a Kirby/Lee Thor comic.

this was a lot of fun. the romance was completely tacked on but they managed to make a corny story convincing.

Looked great, but Hemsworth/Portman had all the chemistry of a game of frog baseball. But it looked great.

Natalie Portman = worst actress alive.

Does she win for most number of crap movies in a row interrupted by an Oscar an the middle of her crap run?

Have to assume Theron, Witherspoon and Bullock are still in the running.

also Berry

on the other hand Tom Hiddleston was a terrific Loki.

lol Alfred why did you see this?

I went to a 10:15 a.m. at a multiplex by the house – it was too early for the pool.

Meek's Cutoff tomorrow night though!

this was actually finally the movie that won me over re: portman. she has just enough charisma to offset all those bad line readings... i've never considered her a good actress but she just has too much of *something* for me to call her bad either.

damn! Haven't seen this yet.

http://i.imgur.com/QjoHx.gif

lol

This was fun! Would've tipped into the good if not for the Portmonster. She's horrible. Really liked Hiddleston's Loki - just hammy enough to make the absurdity work. Hemsworth also seemed to revel in the cheese in a good way, and their fight at the end was two guys making slow motion fight faces. Brilliant.

truly tasty slice of superhokum. whereas x-men is total balls.

The Green Lantern preview before Thor looked like total balls too. Yuck.

freal. i was kinda like :/ and then they went all "here is deadpool shouting the gl creed" at the end i was more o_0 bc guess what that shit does not get less corny when it is shouted.

I didn't think Portman was totally bad, but she wasn't memorable in any way either. Thankfully her role wasn't that large; I half expected her to rush to Asgard with Thor to fight Loki, but I was happy the plot went as it did. The bittersweet ending made Thor seem like a more noble hero, even if everyone knows she and Foster will get back together in the sequel.

I would've preferred to see a Thor & Sif romance story though, like in the comics (and, obviously, in the original myths)... Especially since they stuck to the warrior Sif version of the Marvel comics; IIRC, in the original myths Sif was just Thor's wife with no asskicking tendencies (though Peter Madsen's Valhalla comics proved you can still make her an interesting character while sticking closer to the Edda poems). I also liked the wisecracking research assistant, plus the actress who played her was cute. And the old scientist guy male bonding with Thor was done nicely too.

I agree that both Hiddleston and Hemsworth handled their roles well, without taking them too seriously. The idea that Loki was kind of a Shakespearean tragic character who had noble motives behind his evil deeds was interesting, though personally I prefer Loki a trickster god, who sometimes works on the side of the Asgardians, sometimes against them. But I guess that kind of a "villain" doesn't work well in a superhero story?

The visuals in the movie were really gorgeous, they managed to convey Kirby's vision of "techno gods" almost perfectly. It would've been nice too see Thor & co. walk on an actual rainbow bridge, but their interpretation of Bifröst was certainly innovative. I wonder if it was also meant to be a variation of the Boom Tube, as a shout out to Kirby?

Oh, and obviously there were plenty of little clues for those familiar with Marvel comics. You had Donald Blake as Thor's false identity, references to Bruce Banner and Tony Stark, etc. The archer guy named Barton was obviously Hawkeye, and in the scene following the end titles there was the Cosmic Cube. Also, Odin's trophy room apparently had the Eye of Agamotto in it; from what I've read, the Infinity Gauntlet was also supposed to be there, but I didn't spot it.

Loki had the worst hat imaginable. What kind of shit was that? My kid was totally taken by this, so I laughed along, but this sealed the coffin for me on all these stupid superhero movies. I've been quietly pining for the 1990s, when movies were pretty awful, but the only superhero movie we had to deal with was Batman, and he was DC anyway so who gives a shit.

At least it gave me an opportunity to read him some norse mythology.

Also, this:

The Green Lantern preview before Thor looked like total balls too. Yuck.

― EZ Snappin, Sunday, June 5, 2011 10:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Word to life, god.

Good ass though on portman

I must say I always wish they would just make all those kids of movies in a classic fashion so they look like the 60's Batman TV show. Just go for campy, I mean these are superheroes after all not Shakespeare. I wish Thor looked like this
http://www.immortalthor.net/bio-thor.jpg

friend of mine saw this and said there was a bunch of shit about the Cosmic Cube/Thanos in this as Avengers foreshadowing?!? Is that really what the Avengers movie is going to center around? rmde

After the credits there was a Cosmic Cube & Loki moment. Don't remember any Thanos references. I think they're going to use Loki for the Avengers like the first story in the comics.

Is that really what the Avengers movie is going to center around? rmde

― S'cool bro, I only cried a little (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, June 8, 2011 7:44 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

what other direction should they have gone in?

There have been Thanos rumours. Apparently you can see the Infinity Gauntlet in Odin's trophy room. Oh yeah, there's been some Skrull talk too

I dunno... tbh I'm deeply skeptical of this whole approach to the Avengers movie and can't really see how it's going to work, but it sounds like they are just going for the "throw everything we can think of" approach.

friend also said Hawkeye makes an appearance in the Thor movie...

yeah hawkeye's in it briefly/pointlessly.

is Thanos the blue dude with the Wonder Glove who's always smiling?

the thing about thanos is he's too powerful for JUST the avengers to handle, even w/o the infinity gauntlet... either they're gonna de-power him or they're just setting him up as the bad guy for avengers 2 imo

yes

Thanos for Avengers 2 seems more likely. I mean why not set all this stuff up? Nothing to lose even if the first one totally bombs

I want a Marvel movie about Acts of Vengeance.

I dunno I just associate Thanos with that Starlin Captain Marvel run, which seems so dated and weird and sprawling (not to mention PSYCHEDELIC) ... I dunno it's probably been completely retconned into something else by now for all I know.

You do know that one of the most famous Thanos stories is The Infinity Gauntlet (written by Starlin), where the Avengers are heavily involved, right? If Thanos will be in Avengers 2, I assume that's the plot they'll be using.

The Cosmic Cube in Thor is most likely a reference to the upcoming Captain America movie, since in the Cap comics Red Skull is always trying to get hold of it, and he will be the villain in the movie.

http://web.archive.org/web/20011108045652/http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic=I+Love+Music

???????

oh I meant to post that on the "happy birthday ILE " thread but couldnt be arsed to find it

gg

HH

agreed, heil hitler

no I mean heat your head

Thor 2: Thor Harder. No Branagh.

Mallets Aforethought

boy, Thor is much less sexy without his bearsd.

beard too

Thor 2: Yggdrasil Boogaloo

Kind of a daft movie, but dude playing Thor was very likable.

The trick is to imagine him nude.

I also liked the thing that shot fire out of its face, pretty sure that was naked to begin with.

I only just saw this today. I can't tell if I liked it because Thor was so delicious or if Thor was delicious or if...*wistful gaze, twirls hair* sorry what was I saying

enjoyed this. it was silly. some kind of funny moments as well.

The coffee cup smashing in the diner made me lol

I liked this. Excellent balancing of humans meet GODS!!/GODS have their own problems. Loved the constant visual knods to Jack Kirby (costumes/Asgard sets/galaxies+nebulas in bground during heavy arguments and fight scenes in Asgard sequences). Probably my fave Marvel Comics-based film so far as far as nerdy detail goes.(Haven't seen Cap.)

Saw this on a plane. Maybe this seemed better because I watched after the deeply mediocre X-Men: First Class but I thought it was very likeable. All the coming-to-America cultureshock stuff (smashing the coffee cup, calling Colson "son of Col"), took me back to a lot of movies I liked as a kid — demolishing the small town reminded me of Superman 2. Hemsworth and Hiddleston were both v good. Asgard scenes were much less fun but not too burdensome. Superhero movies set a low bar but this was solid.

This is my 4 yr old daughter's favorite movie, so I've probably seen this about ten times now. It's pretty entertaining, and it is nice that you can boil down the moral of the story to "don't sass your parents".

I’m going through the Marvel films for the first time in order, and so far I’ve enjoyed all of them and maybe Thor most of all? I get tons of mileage out of Hemsworth’s comedic skills and likability, and in places this is just about as good a fantastical fish-out-of-water comedy as Star Trek IV.

Hiddleston was *extremely* excellent here, I mean simply a peak superhero genre performance, Elba was perfect, and I thought Portman was totally fine in her role. But I mean Thor, that’s a character and a role that could be easily hateable but with Hemsworth you can’t imagine how that’s possible.

Unfortunately I hear the next Thor is the worst Marvel film. But I’ll watch it anyway.

First Thor movie is great, Branagh got some wonderful performances & it feels very much like classic theatre at times; also much quieter & more open space than most of the other movies.

It fits with that era too -- Feige and company got to the first Avengers over four years' time and each new film (Iron Man 2 aside) was a chance to experiment with a different style just a bit. The blessing/curse of the first Avengers wasn't just that it made sure the gamble really did pay off, it kinda forced a new 'house tone' that's only now starting to loosen up more -- Guardians helped in that regard but it's only playing out more now with the last few films.

otm

I only saw it one time, as with I think all these Marvel movies, but I thought the second Thor movie was pretty good, and pretty funny.

one thing i want to add is that over the end credits there's the most terrible generic alt-rock song and i had to find out who performed it so I could hate them, and it was the Foo Fighters. They are really that bad.

Since it doesn't have its own thread, I want to also say I mostly liked the 2008 Hulk film, a solid 6/10 movie with a nice amount of pacing and a very wise decision to begin the film in medias res (probably because we'd already had Ang Lee/Eric Bana Hulk a few years before.) The stakes were extremely low and I can't decide whether or not it was a good narrative decision. Not much happened in the film and I'd have bought the Tim Roth role more if he wasn't just a random amoral black-ops soldier type. That said, I liked him.

I couldn't stop looking at William Hurt's mustache though, I think it was stolen from the set of Gettysburg.

been watching these movies since i liked wandavision and loki

this one was dire

It's pretty dull. They hadn't quite figured everything out yet, with Thor himself the biggest oversight. The Dark World might not be anyone's fave, but at least he'd moved beyond Space Tarzan.

Ragnarok is top two marvel efforts tho

Exactly. If it took Thor one to get to Thor 3, it was all worth it. There are definitely sequels better than the original, but how often is the third one significantly better than both of them?

Besides Godfather 3 and Jaws 3, of course.

Significantly is prob tbh underselling it!

First two Thors are the only og core Avengers solo flix I don't rate very highly (I even prefer Iron Man 2, and yes I know that everyone thinks I'm an idiot on that count and likely many other counts).

Iron Man 2 suuuuuuucks. It might be the only MCU movie that is outright bad, imo. Looks bad, written bad, over stuffed and under stuffed.

xpost Well, like, a lot of people like Toy Story 3 a lot and think it's the best. I personally don't, but even so, no sane person that would call it significantly better than Toy Story 3. So Thor 3 is not just better, it's *significantly*, dramatically better than the other two.

(And yes, I even rate Norton Hulk higher, bring it bruh.)

Obviously the presence of Hemsworth and Hiddleston elevates the material considerably but they're pretty saggy affairs otherwise.

Iron man 2 is certainly better than thor 1

Iron man 2 may be better than the two endgames and black panther tbh

Oof. When my kid and I rewatched them all over the last year Iron Man 2 was the only one we kind of looked at each other after and agreed, well, that was pretty shitty. I want to say I liked Thor more the second time. And Dark World remained fine to me.

Dr strange woeful

Anyways, thor 1 no good, back on topic

Dr. Strange, like Thor, often felt like it had just a couple of sets and tried to make those two sets look like lots of sets, but I wasn't fooled.

Didn’t like Thor 1 the first time I watched it but it really grew on me after the second viewing - it’s kinda lovably goofy. And I’ve said it before but so glad they cast Chris and not Liam Hemsworth as Thor.

Thor 2 is forgettable, Iron Man 2 is outright bad - those two, along with Dr Strange and Avengers: Age of Ultron, are solidly bottom tier MCU.

I feel like this is a fair compromise position from which to bring in the endgames and black panther and i look fwd to the next round of talks

i've only seen the first four, to which i say

iron man 1 >>>>>>>>>>>> iron man 2 > hulk >>>>>>>>>>>> thor 1

probably only because of downey tho. and paltrow is the best of the ladies so far

idris elba is the only good part of thor (although hemsworth is indeed quite a physical specimen)

I don't even remember the baddy in Iron Man 2. I know it's sometimes Mickey Rourke, but other than him, there's some other shit going on that I just totally blank on. Which is crazy for a film with soooooo much going on (literally; the movie otherwise has nothing going on).

Mockey rourke and sam rockwell put it well out of the mire tbh

Now that's as entertainment, if there are metrics under which those guys' performances actually bring what is held to be a decent movie down then they are imo nonsense metrics because nothing in that movie besides is worth a look

I believe tombot had views as to the pinpoint accuracy of Sam Rockwell's performance as an non-military contractor pitching for military contracts. I don't have any views on that, I don't have access to that metric and I don't feel that I should have. It might be "a good civil servant's film" is what I'm saying.

Dr. Strange, like Thor, often felt like it had just a couple of sets and tried to make those two sets look like lots of sets, but I wasn't fooled.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, July 18, 2021 2:44 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this always stuck out to me about thor 1, the scenes that took place on earth looked incredibly cheap. like they were filmed on a theme park wild west shootout show set

Thor 1 was great

I love the first Thor. To me it is a very well-working mix between sword-and-sorcery fantasy & contemporary MCU real-world stuff. I find Loki done particularly well, I also think the Warriors Three and Lady Sif are nicely distinguished enriching extras.

I remember hoping to love the second Thor as much but coming out of the cinema quite disappointed. However, when I rewatched it later, I enjoyed it immensely.

I personally don't think any of the MCU movies has been below average-to-good. My least favourite has always been Iron Man II as well, but I thought it was enjoyable enough. It has been a while since the last time I watched it, I wonder if I like it better now as with The Dark World.

I personally don't think any of the MCU movies has been below average-to-good.

Thor 2 had the business with the portals at the end, which was quite fun for an MCU boss battle

otherwise pretty worthless iirc

Except that Thor himself is more fun, too, and Darcy is a funny character as well.

ragnarok used hemsworth so perfectly that it made you wonder why it took so long for the creative team to realize that thor should be a total goofball. ragnarok and infinity war did a good job of indulging in that side of him while also remembering why he's a noble hammer-wielding hero. endgame went a little too far in the goofy direction, imo, tho who wouldn't want to sit around and play video games all day with korg.