THE SPOILER-FREE BIT:

The kids and I caught Thor 3D at the weekend. This is the first 3D movie I've seen at a cinema and I found the process somewhat distracting from my enjoyment of the movie. In some places it worked well, but for the main part it interfered with my engagement with the actual story. I'd have been much happier with Thor 2D.

3D aside, I had fun watching the movie. It was a great blockbuster and an enjoyable way to spend some time. It may be attacked as something of a mish-mash, with some loose plot ends and pacing flaws, and these are fair criticisms, but even if the sum of the parts didn't exceed the whole there were some pretty damn good parts in there. It's a worthy piece to rank alongside the Iron Man movies.

I actually felt Thor was about ten minutes too short, with a few of the combat/action scenes needing another act each to ramp up the threat an extra notch and to give Jane Foster a reason for being in the movie.

Let's look at the detail, with some middling spoilers from here on...

The good:

Brannagh doesn't shy away from delivering the Lee/Kirby Asgard. It's a shiny Kirby realm eternal that looks spectacular. The main characters all look pretty good (Volstagg is a bit thin) and most are dressed in their Kirby or Simonson outfits. Even Thor's much-depreciated leather outfit manages to catch the intention of the original costume and works pretty well on screen.

The hammer makes wonderful metallic noises when it whomps things.

There's a reasonable trade-off between Asgardian Shakespeare-speak and modern English. When the Asgardians get cross they tend to speak more "olde-worlde".

SHIELD is presented quite ambiguously, with a meaty role for Agent Coulson. Special Agent Barton was a very pleasant surprise and his personality seemed spot on.

Sif, Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg are all well portrayed and each has a strong role in the first half of the movie. And there's a great line where a SHIELD observer warns that "Xena, Robin Hood, and Jackie Chan have just arrived". The initial mission featuring these four, Thor, and Loki does a great job of defining each of them.

Thor himself has a genuine story arc as he goes from being Flash Thompson to becoming a true hero. The moment where he finds he's not worthy to lift Mjolnir is a great dramatic turn and beautifully sets up the payoff where he can heft the hammer. The actor managed to carry off the quiet scenes as well as the heroic ones, demonstrating a real range.

The "map" of the Nine Realms is very well done.

The post-credits sequence offers a direct lead-in to the Avengers movie, reveals that Loki might be behind the formation of the team, and sets up a potential tie-in from the Captain America movie too. Another "Oh my!" ending.

The bad:

The movie shies away from baldly admitting that these guys are Norse gods, or that they live in a magical realm. If you want to believe that these are aliens who were mistaken for gods by Vikings and that their power comes from very advanced super-science you can do. It's one area where the script feels like it lost confidence in its ability to draw its audience along; which given it blatantly includes frost giants, the Casket of Ancient Winters etc.seems odd.

Balder is on holiday. No sign of him anywhere in this movie.

Jane Foster, a scientist interested in dimensional physics in this version, appears not to have anything other than a default superhero girlfriend personality. All the funny remarks and great play-off expressions go to her female friend. Jane not being a brave compassionate nurse/paramedic robs the character of one of the personality drivers that could explain Thor's attraction to her. And she's pretty much the only main character who doesn't have any contribution to make to solving the threat in the story.

Sam Jackson didn't seem that excited about his 45-second screentime and seemed to phone in his Nick Fury. The impact of his appearance was lessened because we'd not seen him at all before the post-credits sequence to set him up.

Somewhere in the plot meetings somebody accidentally edited out the bit that explains why Odin needs a snooze and why he might faint suddenly in the middle of a conversation with Loki. The essential two lines of exposition just aren't there.

The indifferent:

It's great that Loki gets more motivation and more development than the average superhero movie villain. However, on a first viewing I was left uncertain about what was going on in Loki's mind at any given time; a natural featrure of Loki, you might say, but when it leaves me puzzled as to why he's doing what he's doing even after the film's ended it's not a good thing. I applaud offering Loki some depth, but I could have used a few more depth markers. Why did Loki decide to commit genocide on the frost giants including his true father?

The battle scenes were well done but the two big set-piece finale battles both felt too easy for Thor. When you put Thor up against the Destroyer it should require a supreme effort; this was just a tough fight. Thor didn't even rip his cloak. Then the last battle with Loki felt a little anticlimactic. They stand on the rainbow bridge and have a spear and hammer fight with some minor illusion trickery. I didn't feel it served the drama. Meanwhile, the ice giant invasion of Asgard and the bravery of the Warriors Three and Sif in, um, taking Heimdall to hospital, happened entirely offscreen. These fights needed to be better storyboarded with better pacing.

So, this movie's a strange beast, flawed by very watchable, different from other superhero fare but sometimes uncertain because of it, strong in many places but lacking in some key battles, excellent in offering character yet occasionally failing to convey motivation. I'd recommend seeing it. I'd watch it again myself. I'd really like to see Thor 2 learn from this start and put all these elements together again with those tiny tweaks to take it from good to great.

The most Avengery Avengers out there right now are the ones in the Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes TV series. I’ve been favourably impressed with how well the creators seem to understand the characters – personalities, motivations, visuals, and movement styles. I’ve been dazzled by seeing such faithful representations of so many weird and wonderful Marvel characters.

And now the series is back. Herein are spoilers for episodes up to #24 “This Hostage Earth” (that sounds familiar). I’ve yet to watch the other two episodes recently broadcast in the UK.
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One of the nice things about the animated series is that it’s not afraid to mine quite diverse eras of the comic’s history and to draw in a few unexpected surprises from elsewhere. Hence “The Casket of Ancient Winters” should have really had a Walt Simonson credit somewhere. Although the original storyline did include the Avengers and even crossed over into their book for one issue it mostly played out in Thor’s title. I don’t think Maleketh the Dark Elf even appeared in Avengers. Still, this mystical threat serves to allow some good interaction between Thor and Iron Man, and their episode-long arc is about them coming to a grudging respect and understanding of each other. The Panther continues to be the diplomat/politician of the group. Nice to see brief cameos of Torch and Thing.

“Hail Hydra!” is the first episode I felt perhaps relied too much on knowledge of backstory. In very short order a new or casual viewer needed to be filled in on Hydra (who were the enemy in World War 2, since Nazis still can’t be depicted in any show that the studios hope to sell to German TV stations), on AIM, on the defection/betrayal of the Black Widow, on Cap’s world war 2 status, on Bucky, on SHIELD, Nick Fury, and Maria Hill, and on the cosmic cube. At least. Even then, the shock ending – the cube snatching Bucky to the present day? – didn’t really make clear what had happened or who this person was. However, Cap’s interactions in this episode were excellent, from his confidence in Hawkeye’s ability to make impossible shots to his comments to the Hulk: “In my day we had a word for what you are: hero.” And weakened Cap was properly indefatigable against Baron Struker. Special mention goes to Hawkeye’s classic Ant-Man delivery arrow.

“Ultron-5” and “The Ultron Imperative” were the payoff on the long-running Ultron plotline. This story was actually set up better than the comics original; a benefit of hindsight. Ultron had already been built up as formidable in previous adventures. All beats were right, including Hank’s angst, Ultron’s reactions to Jan, and the growing threat of a rapidly-evolving and very personal menace to the team. That said there seemed to be one beat absent. Why bother guest-starring Jane Foster early in the story if you’re not going to show her reaction to Thor’s apparent death? Maria Hill was just as annoying in this episode as she is in the comics, a mixture of arrogance and ignorance supposedly justified by told-not-shown tuff-girl competence, so I guess they got that characterisation right too. The good stuff far outweighed the not-so-good though, and Thor even got to say “Ultron, we would have words with thee.”

And so to “This Hostage Earth”, in which Loki’s plans seem to be finally panning out. I’m hoping this is the arc that will reveal that Loki was behinds the breakouts in the first episode. The best things in this episode were the villains. Each was well characterised, each had a moment, and none were underplayed. This is the way to go; the Masters of Evil are the varsity of baddies and they should be a threat. I’m unclear where Grey Gargoyle went after the pre-credits sequence but the rest really got their licks in. Zemo was scheming at his Nicieza best, planning to double-cross gods when it was convenient and prepared with the kit to do it. The map of the nine worlds was a nice touch. The only downside of this episode was that it was more a Justice League-style “team split up on solo quests for the seven maguffins” scenario that a typical Avengers plot (ignoring for now the Avengers/Defenders war), so we didn’t get as much inter-team interaction as we usually enjoy.

Best things about the series so far are: Cap, inspiring, commanding, and straight from Lee/Kirby; Hawkeye, brash, bigmouthed and brilliant; Jan’s dialogue, ranging quite properly from ditzy to heroic. Worst thing about the series so far: Lack of the real flesh-and-blood Jarvis.

IW

It didn't bother me so much, but I agree there were only a few scenes where it really seemed to be worth it. Mostly in Asgard.




I think it was a unique take on the Thor mythos - and successfully managed to combine the magical with the superhero genre. I was pleasantly surprised at just how much airtime Asgard got compared to Thor-on-Earth time.




Some of the combat fell flat, and agreed about JF - but I thought that may have just been a Natalie Portman thing. She never really does it for me (I still haven't seen Black Swan).





SPOILER ALERT!!









I was surprised at how cool/not lame they all looked. Given how some superheroes turn out onscreen. I thought Sif seemed a bit uncomfortable with that shield she was running around with - and unsure exactly what to do with it (her staff on the other hand was awesome).

Asgard was spectacular! And very Kirbyesque.














That line was a classic!! Those four were all pretty good. I also liked the interpretation of Heimdall.




I was pleasantly impressed by Hemsworth as Thor. The one thing that irked me about the look (and it's such a minor irk) was his obviously dyed eyebrows. That just looked funny.




Indeed.




Ooo that's a huge spoiler! but yes, worth hanging around through the closing credits to see it.







I thought it was clear enough. The exposition during the introduction. The Erik Selvig character did pick up a book about Norse mythology at the book shop. Jane Foster also made a few comments.

No one jumped up and said "wait up - you're saying your Thor? THOR!? Norse god of thunder and what not?" granted.







Darcy (the friend) makes up for Jane's lack of personality though. I was more concerned that her colleague, Erik Selvig, whom I assumed to be her PhD supervisor, was so lapse in his OHS observations. On reflection though I guess Foster was supposed to be the lead scientist and he was just her assistant. I'm not sure Portman managed to pull that off sufficiently in the movie. Minor quible though.







I thought Frigga had one line on it at least?







See, I think Loki was awesome! I'd say he was one of the standouts and Tom Hiddleston did a great job in bringing him to life. I think that kind of confusion about why Loki is doing what he is doing is part of him being Loki - though I understand what you are saying above.




Yes, sometimes the battle scenes felt a bit off. The Destroy was visually cool, and there were a few good moments in the fight in the town with it (Sif jumping on it being one) - but there was one stage where the warriors three and Sif were just standing around in the background looking useless I remember thinking looked bad.

I did enjoy the Frost Giant world battle though, particularly the chase by the large creature.





I agree. I got more from it than I didn't. Visually I think it was stunning. Asgard as said, and Thor flying just looked so dang cool up there on the screen.

It bothered me enough that I'll actively avoid 3D versions of other movies given the choice.







Agreed. In fact the Asgard stuff was in danger of overshadowing the Earth stuff until SHIELD showed up.







Likewise.













Sif was the girlfriend Thor should have had all along; but the comics worked that out in the end too.




That was why I was disappointed we didn't see much of it in the main sequences of the film. It made a loevely backdrop but where was it when we needed to see the Aesir fighting frost giants in its streets?

Interestingly, the latest episodes of the Avengers cartoon I've seen also feature a Loki/Asgard plot, and [Spoilers blacked out here] take the Avengers to each of the nine realms. Again the Warriors Three and Sif play major combat roles and again each gets pretty well portrayed. The difference with the cartoon is a sense that the whole of Asgard is fighting and the whole of the city is in combat.

And as with the Thor movie, the big fight starts when Thor calls Mjolnir to him and ends when Odin wakes up to give a spanking.

Of course, the Avengers being in the Nine Realms is extra gravy. Giant Man in Jotunheim's a natural. Tony Stark getting the dwarves to help him forge uru armour was real fun. Cap meeting "Jack Fury and the Howlers" in Hel was pretty spooky; of course Hela would crush on him. And Hawkeye teams up with, um, Legolas.

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The hammer makes wonderful metallic noises when it whomps things.


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There's a reasonable trade-off between Asgardian Shakespeare-speak and modern English. When the Asgardians get cross they tend to speak more "olde-worlde".


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SHIELD is presented quite ambiguously, with a meaty role for Agent Coulson. Special Agent Barton was a very pleasant surprise and his personality seemed spot on.


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Sif, Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg are all well portrayed and each has a strong role in the first half of the movie. And there's a great line where a SHIELD observer warns that "Xena, Robin Hood, and Jackie Chan have just arrived". The initial mission featuring these four, Thor, and Loki does a great job of defining each of them.

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That line was a classic!! Those four were all pretty good. I also liked the interpretation of Heimdall.

I'm not sure why Heimdall had to be black, other than to either tick the ethnic sensitivity box or to irritate white supremacists; but as a purist I was offended Sif wasn't the same skin colour as her brother.

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Thor himself has a genuine story arc as he goes from being Flash Thompson to becoming a true hero. The moment where he finds he's not worthy to lift Mjolnir is a great dramatic turn and beautifully sets up the payoff where he can heft the hammer. The actor managed to carry off the quiet scenes as well as the heroic ones, demonstrating a real range.

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I was pleasantly impressed by Hemsworth as Thor. The one thing that irked me about the look (and it's such a minor irk) was his obviously dyed eyebrows. That just looked funny.

The actor impressed me. He had to carry the main emotional load of the movie and he managed it. Special commendation to the scene where Loki speaks to him about his father's death; both actors nail their various emotions and responses perfectly.

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The "map" of the Nine Realms is very well done.

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Indeed.

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The post-credits sequence offers a direct lead-in to the Avengers movie, reveals that Loki might be behind the formation of the team, and sets up a potential tie-in from the Captain America movie too. Another "Oh my!" ending.

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Ooo that's a huge spoiler! but yes, worth hanging around through the closing credits to see it.

So far I haven't been overwhelmed with Jackson's casting as Fury, but that might be because he's been given so very little to do except play default Jackson.

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The bad:


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The movie shies away from baldly admitting that these guys are Norse gods, or that they live in a magical realm. If you want to believe that these are aliens who were mistaken for gods by Vikings and that their power comes from very advanced super-science you can do. It's one area where the script feels like it lost confidence in its ability to draw its audience along; which given it blatantly includes frost giants, the Casket of Ancient Winters etc.seems odd.

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I thought it was clear enough. The exposition during the introduction. The Erik Selvig character did pick up a book about Norse mythology at the book shop. Jane Foster also made a few comments.

Yep, but likewise we had the "these guys could be aliens using cosmic gates to visit us back in history" stuff too. I'd have preferred a less ambiguous take that allowed for more mystical trappings. Loki used very little magic and the Realm of Wonders was less wonderful stripped of its sorcery.

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No one jumped up and said "wait up - you're saying your Thor? THOR!? Norse god of thunder and what not?" granted.

This is a guy who has a day of the week still named after him. We needed to see more payoff to the "who is this guy" subplot. I wanted to see Coulson trying to explain it on the phone to Fury.

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Balder is on holiday. No sign of him anywhere in this movie.


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Jane Foster, a scientist interested in dimensional physics in this version, appears not to have anything other than a default superhero girlfriend personality. All the funny remarks and great play-off expressions go to her female friend. Jane not being a brave compassionate nurse/paramedic robs the character of one of the personality drivers that could explain Thor's attraction to her. And she's pretty much the only main character who doesn't have any contribution to make to solving the threat in the story.

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Darcy (the friend) makes up for Jane's lack of personality though. I was more concerned that her colleague, Erik Selvig, whom I assumed to be her PhD supervisor, was so lapse in his OHS observations. On reflection though I guess Foster was supposed to be the lead scientist and he was just her assistant. I'm not sure Portman managed to pull that off sufficiently in the movie. Minor quible though.

Yeah, Thor should have gone for Darcy.

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Sam Jackson didn't seem that excited about his 45-second screentime and seemed to phone in his Nick Fury. The impact of his appearance was lessened because we'd not seen him at all before the post-credits sequence to set him up.


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Somewhere in the plot meetings somebody accidentally edited out the bit that explains why Odin needs a snooze and why he might faint suddenly in the middle of a conversation with Loki. The essential two lines of exposition just aren't there.

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I thought Frigga had one line on it at least?

I'm sure there was some stuff there which I might pick up on another viewing. First time round it seemed insufficiently laid out to me (but I know from the comics what the deal is). My 13 year old son was pretty baffled.

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The indifferent:


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It's great that Loki gets more motivation and more development than the average superhero movie villain. However, on a first viewing I was left uncertain about what was going on in Loki's mind at any given time; a natural featrure of Loki, you might say, but when it leaves me puzzled as to why he's doing what he's doing even after the film's ended it's not a good thing. I applaud offering Loki some depth, but I could have used a few more depth markers. Why did Loki decide to commit genocide on the frost giants including his true father?


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See, I think Loki was awesome! I'd say he was one of the standouts and Tom Hiddleston did a great job in bringing him to life. I think that kind of confusion about why Loki is doing what he is doing is part of him being Loki - though I understand what you are saying above.

I maybe didn't praise the actor doing Loki enough. I thought he managed a nice mix between theatrical villain and nuanced troubled plotter. It's not his fault that his "daddy issues" motivation wasn't properly worked out in narrative.

To fix this we really needed more on his adoption, on his learning about his adoption, on why he might blame Laufrey and the frost giants for his adoption, on his Odin issues (does he want to rule Asgard replacing Odin or save it then wake Odin up to praise him?), etc.

Some of Loki's best moments weren't scripted. His disappointment when Sif doesn't give him the enthusiastic cheerleader support she offered Thor, his surrupticious attempt to lift Mjolnir, and of course that final scene of pure absolute Lokiness were all made effective because of the actor's interpretation of the scene.



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The battle scenes were well done but the two big set-piece finale battles both felt too easy for Thor. When you put Thor up against the Destroyer it should require a supreme effort; this was just a tough fight. Thor didn't even rip his cloak. Then the last battle with Loki felt a little anticlimactic. They stand on the rainbow bridge and have a spear and hammer fight with some minor illusion trickery. I didn't feel it served the drama. Meanwhile, the ice giant invasion of Asgard and the bravery of the Warriors Three and Sif in, um, taking Heimdall to hospital, happened entirely offscreen. These fights needed to be better storyboarded with better pacing.

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Yes, sometimes the battle scenes felt a bit off. The Destroy was visually cool, and there were a few good moments in the fight in the town with it (Sif jumping on it being one) - but there was one stage where the warriors three and Sif were just standing around in the background looking useless I remember thinking looked bad.

We really needed more civilians or SHIELD agents in danger to give everyone something heroic to do. And we needed another twist after the whole Thor-gets-his-hammer-at-last moment to establish that even with Mjolnir Thor is facing a specially tough threat.

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I did enjoy the Frost Giant world battle though, particularly the chase by the large creature.

That first battle scene was the most complete and satisfying.

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So, this movie's a strange beast, flawed by very watchable, different from other superhero fare but sometimes uncertain because of it, strong in many places but lacking in some key battles, excellent in offering character yet occasionally failing to convey motivation. I'd recommend seeing it. I'd watch it again myself. I'd really like to see Thor 2 learn from this start and put all these elements together again with those tiny tweaks to take it from good to great.

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I agree. I got more from it than I didn't. Visually I think it was stunning. Asgard as said, and Thor flying just looked so dang cool up there on the screen.

I'm told Brannagh is a fan of the Reeve Superman movies and that much was plain here. The Destroyer might as well have told Thor to kneel before Zod. But that's no bad thing.

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:)

I had a marathon viewing of all of the remaining episodes on YouTube a few weeks back, after they had apparently already aired in some other country. (Seeing as we don't get the particular Disney pay channel that runs the show, this is how I've had to watch all of them.)

It becomes clear they added that 3 month break in airing new episodes so that they could time the big finale storyline to coincide with the release of Thor, as Asgardian matters make up the majority of the last batch of episodes, including the multiple-part finale where Loki's season long plans come to fruition.

I actually haven't read a lot of Thor, so this trip through the 9 realms was new to me, and quite the epic way to end the season. It was, perhaps, a bit too fast paced for the epic aim the story took, and I was mildly baffled from time to time, but I didn't really struggle to follow any of it.

All in all it was a satisfying end to the first season, and I'm greatly looking forward to season 2. I've already heard that a voice actor has mentioned being cast as the Vision, so that will certainly be welcome by me. I'm curious as to whether he becomes a regular or is just a guest star. I'm also still curious as to whether we'll ever get to see Pietro and Wanda. They were all characters that were a big part of the Kree-Skrull war, which seems to still be looming for next season. It would be sad to see them written out of it completely, but it's obvious that they'll be going in some very different directions regardless.

Ah well, I'm still looking forward to it either way... It's a fun show for a Marvel fan.

The Canadian broadcast schedule for the show is hard to follow; the 3-month hiatus didn't help either. Therefore I downloaded them all on highspeed at work and watched them at home.

I do have to agree that this show is by far the best source of THE Avengers available right now, since the comics aren't doing it. I really love this show, they have really captured the essence of the characters.

In particular I love how Jan and Hulk interact; she was the first one to really accept him ("You're helping me?" from way back against Graviton) and it shows since he is more than happy to do as she asks.

My favourite episode is still Hail Hydra (I hope I have the title right), where Hawkeye and Mockingbird take on Hydra. Seeing Hawkeye with one arrow ready to take on Baron Strucker, Black Widow, Viper, the Grim Reaper, and 100 Hydra agents by himself is classic, never-say-die Hawkeye.

I really do hope we get more than cameos from some other Marvel heroes; so far we've seen Wolverine (as a Howling Commando in WW II, not in costume) and the Fantastic Four. They really take a lot of care with the details on the show, such as getting Steve Blum to voice Logan in the WWII scene, so I have high hopes that we'll get some quality guest stars.

Even though I've downloaded the entire series, I will be buying it on DVD when they release the Complete 1st Season (I refuse to buy separate volumes). Looking forward to watching it with Griffin when he's old enough to enjoy it!

I do admit I'm not liking some of the costume designs I've seen revealed for season 2, though others are good decisions. I'll leave spoiler space just in case...

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Captain America is getting more of an Ultimate look to him, obviously to make him look more like the movie costume. Up until now I've loved that we have been getting the classic looks with some modern updating (I love the Skurge redesign, for example), but losing the classic Cap makes me sad. A particular plot point in the final episode makes me hope the Ultimate look is temporary, but I won't spoil that.

Hulk is getting elasticized shorts instead of tattered pants, and that totally makes sense so I'm fine with that.

Thor is getting his current Coipel-designed look, which doesn't surprise me since Superhero Squad has already switched him over. Marvel is obviously intending this look to stick around. I've been enjoying Thor's look on the show but I don't mind switching to the Coipel look.

Iron Man is getting a new armour design, which completely fits the character so I have no problem with that.

Not sure about the rest of the characters; I expect Wasp might change since she's known for that, but I'm hoping they leave Hawkeye, Pym, the Black Widow, and the Panther alone.

...Vision, Ms. Marvel, Falcon, Bald Nick Fury, Hulk, Cap, Thor, The Guardians of the Galaxy (Rocket Raccoon and Groot!), the Invisible Woman and Doctor Doom.

Vizh looks pretty cool. I'm happy with him.

http://aries0083-action-figure-blog.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-stuff-for-avengers-earths-mightiest.html

We've also seen the Black Knight (fighting Kangbots in London) and possibly Peter Parker (saving a couple of kids on a bridge), plus Jasper Sitwell, Jimy Wu, the original Howlers, and newspapers speculating on a bog-monster in the Everglades and whether there's Punisher at work in Harlem's gangland.

Oh yeah, the amount of cameos has been great, but I'm hoping that those will expand to full on guest-roles. I missed Peter Parker on the bridge though, which episode was that?

I also wonder if the X-Men will guest star at all; since these characters all exist together on Superhero Squad I assume from a legal standpoint it is doable. And since the Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon was canceled there is no conflict there either. While I would be very excited for a full-on Fantastic Four team-up, I imagine the number of viewers would go through the roof if the X-Men showed up (and since we've seen Logan there might be a possibility).

Of course, I'd be even more excited if Hawkeye blew his fuse and ran off to start his own team on the West Coast for an episode or two...

~Hat~

Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!

I caught them all on Youtube a couple weekends back. I agree 100%.
You know I've always been an Avengers fan, so seeing them treated this well is absolutely wonderful.

I actually jumped up in my chair and cheered at that "Ultron, we would have words with thee" line.

I saw a preview for season two. Ms Marvel and Vision join the team. The 1st episode features:
A team up between the team and the FF against Dr. Doom,
we get several modern era space heroes (Adam Warlock, the female Quasar(ugh), Rocket Raccoon) as the "Guardians of the Galaxy",
more Mockingbird and Black Widow as well as Falcon,
the Kree/Skrull War
and a quote that I hope means something, “We cannot confirm or deny that the Scarlet Witch and or Quicksilver will or won’t be in this season”. I think bringing it up means we will see them.

I can’t wait!

Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!

According to the special on the DVDs, they will go deep into Vish, his origins and he'll have a character arc. He'll be a regular. So will Ms. Marvel.

Here's a quote that I hope means something, “We cannot confirm or deny that the Scarlet Witch and or Quicksilver will or won’t be in this season”. I think bringing it up means we will see them.

I can’t wait!

Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!

Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!

Definitely agree with all of this. I really liked this version of Asgard, and while I understand their fears of leaving the majority of the audience feeling like it was way too bizarre to relate to, I found myself caught up in it all rather quickly. (This does seem to be a point that splits viewers though, as the people who prefer the fantasy segments and the people who prefer the Earth segments seem to be split with a substantial amount on each side.)





SHIELD was worked into this story far better than they were worked into Iron Man 2, where the subplot felt completely disconnected from most everything else. Here they play up the old "government agencies as an obstacle to the benevolent alien on a mission" angle, but they took it in new directions. SHIELD isn't unreasonably hostile towards Thor, and don't hunt him down relentlessly... Instead, when he falls under their notice they decide to cut him loose and see what happens. It was a refreshing twist, I thought.






I thought the Asgardians looked good, and all were fun and well defined for the size/importance of their roles. Heimdall certainly looked imposing, as any good guardsman should. I liked Thor's helmet for the one scene it showed up in. My one complaint is that the woman who played Sif is very attractive, but the way they designed her look she seemed more like she was there to play sports than be the goddess of war. She was just a little too practical looking with her simple, tightly pulled-back hair, which certainly makes sense but "practicality" wasn't the watchword for any of the other godly designs. She needed a little more "oomph".

Perhaps in any sequel they will play up her relationship with Thor and pull back on the kid-sister vibe they gave her this time out.





I liked that one, and I think the addition of Loki to it put a lot more meat on the bone than the Fury-centric ones of the past.





I didn't mind how they handled this. Some people felt they tried to make everything too technological, but to me the only thing that seemed at all based on technology was this version of the Rainbow Bridge. Loki is suspected of sneaking the Frost Giants into Asgard by the Warriors Three because "a master of sorcery could find a way to avoid Heimdal's watch" or something like that. Odin seemed pretty magical in everything he did, never having to resort to fiddling with technology to accomplish any number of wonders. I think they threw the science line out there for the people who would have a problem with magic and then proceeded as normal, which was fine by me.





I agree, especially in that a nurse having to treat the wounded and dying would probably have a lot more to teach Thor about the cost of war. It would have necessitated a more grim dimension to the middle act, but then a little more weight wouldn't have been a bad thing, in my opinion.

These Marvel films keep shying away from the moments that make their characters so powerful in fiction: saving innocents. I liked that Thor and the others scrambled to save the townspeople from the Destroyer, but the danger wasn't much more realized than your average episode of "the A-team" style mayhem. However, I was eager to see the Frost Giants get an ass-kicking in the opening prologue where mothers and children were running in terror and being cut down by ice... When Odin and the Asgardians appeared to stop them, it was rousing. The strongest point of any of Marvel's films yet has been Iron Man's showdown with the terrorists attacking the village. They need to let the audience see some injustice, and then offer them a hero when they want it most. Otherwise, it's just two guys fighting between themselves.





My problem with the Ultimate Nick Fury being used, and Sam Jackson being cast as him, is that there's no character there for him to play. He's playing someone conceived of as a near-parody of himself (or at least his stereotypical screen persona.) It's like writing Reed Richards to resemble and act like Jeff Goldblum in his various scientist/smart guy roles (The Fly, Jurassic Park, Independence Day), and then cast him to play it. Is there any of the Reed Richards character left in there?

Now, had they cast a different actor to play the Ultimate version of Nick Fury, then I could imagine something actually coming of it. But hiring a person to play a thinly veiled version of "their usual" just leaves them nowhere to go.





Yeah, that scene plays as very odd. If I were Branagh, I would have at least had Hopkins go down a little more dramatically so that audiences could assume a heart-attack or seizure or some kind of ailment. Rene Russo does give some explanation of it after the fact, but not in a very straightforward way.





This one is tricky, as I admire a movie that doesn't lay everything out for you, but I also feel like this was far too ambiguous for a film that wasn't exactly subtle the rest of the way. On the other hand, I love the complexity of the question and his actions... He finds out he's the natural son of the Frost Giant's king, stolen(?) as a child. Not only does he manipulate the situation so as to murder his natural father directly under the gaze of his adoptive father, he tries to wipe out the entire Frost Giant race. That's a fascinatingly desperate attempt to cut all ties that separate him from his adoptive family.

In a more subtle film, I would leave the audience to puzzle out that motivation themselves... but in this film, I think the dialog could have been honed to better showcase this desperation and fear of rejection and perhaps emphasize a self-loathing in Loki that he projects directly onto his Frost Giant ancestry.






See my notes above about what Marvel films have been missing in the big hero moments, but I obviously agree. The Frost Giant invasion of Earth at the start of the film remains the more interesting conflict because of the obvious stakes involved. Here, the stakes are very personal, which is good, but they would have been better served to do a "Return of the Jedi" climax and intercut the dueling individuals with scenes of a larger struggle.

Overall, however, I really enjoyed the film myself even if I found it a bit ramshackle in construction. I've read that Branagh sent a letter to the award-winning actress who apparently played the owner of the New Mexico diner, apologizing for her role being cut out of the film completely. So, apparently, there's plenty of footage that didn't make it into the final film. I'd be curious to see a longer cut of Thor and find out if the film were improved by a longer (but as a result, quieter) exile on Earth.

Of course, one could say that Simon Willaims obviously has a character arc as well, even though he's only been seen very sparingly. I'm curious to see what they do with Vizh.

And I'll hold out hope for Wanda and Pietro, although it certainly doesn't seem like they'll get to be major cast members at this point.

Heh heh...take note Hollywood. Visionary demands more boob. Mmmhehemheh.

You are correct though. I bet 10-1 you could design a better Sif costume.

Didn't the Destroyer look awesomely awesome though?




I was so wanting them to "pan to Sif frowning" when Thor finally kissed Jane.

Didn't happen. Was bummed.







Yeah, the only thing that would have made it more "oh-my" would have been an appearance by Janet Van-Dyne.

We live in hope.




I wonder who she is.

Al B.

I don't demand more boob... more like "advise".

Really, though, I thought the problem was more with her hair/lack of headdress. Hell, even in her character's movie poster they had her hair loose and framing her face, and for various premieres she wore it back but still interesting. In all of those, she looks a bit more like a "goddess". But in the film itself, she wore it all tightly pulled back into a ponytail like a college sophomore in a hurry.

Again, practical fits the idea of a warrior woman, but she should have been given a somewhat more interesting look with her hair if she wasn't going to get a headdress as in the comics.


The Destroyer did look awesome. I heard a lot of non-comic fans comparing him to GORT though. And I just saw the remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still"... Let me tell you, that crappy GORT has nothing on the Destroyer.

(Although he did have a glass jaw as Ian mentioned.)





Yeah. It seemed to me that there were some very minor visual cues in there that Sif had a thing for Thor, but nothing that couldn't be easily dismissed.





I still believe that, since they apparently plan an Ant-man film, they won't cast anyone to portray Hank or Jan until the director of that feature chooses his lead actors.





Looking her up it was Adriana Barraza, a Mexican-born actress who won acclaim for various roles and an Academy Award nomination for "Babel". The fact that her character has a name (Isabel Alvarez... thanks IMDb!) and was played by an Oscar nominee suggests that she would have had at least a solid scene or two that got cut out.

I also went to the 3D, which I normally wouldn't but I figure every other time I watch this film will be in 2D so why not? I found it didn't detract from my enjoyment but it didn't add that much either (though the scene of Thor's interrupted-coronation really gave the throne room a great sense of depth, I will admit).




I find that if you want to tear a movie to pieces you can, but then you don't enjoy it, and the whole point of going to a movie is to enjoy yourself! I even liked the second Fantastic Four film as a "turn of your brain and grab some popcorn" piece of fun.

My buddy who is a huge Iron Man fan graciously said Thor was almost as good as Iron Man, to which I replied Iron Man was almost as good as Thor.




Somebody had to repeatedly hit Thor with the car.










Yeah, I thought the costumes all looked great. Initially I feared for them when I saw the promos of Odin and Loki, but then remembered promotional stills don't have the same lighting as the film does, which makes all the difference.

Agree on Volstagg, he was burly, not voluminous.




Thor smash!




I kind of wish Odin had spoken a little more "olde-worlde", as you put it. I felt Hemsworth nailed it but Hopkins didn't have the same weight to his words as I hoped he would. Minor quibble at best.




I knew he was in it but I still got excited. My dream cast of Hawkeye would have been Chris Pine (Kirk in Star Trek) but I have no problem at all with Jeremy Renner in the role.




I liked seeing the band of friends together invade Jotunheim, and the Warriors Three actually had more of a role than I thought they would. I remarked when I first saw them than Fandral in particular looked spot on.




I thought his progression to becoming worthy was well done, and not forced as I feared it would be.




Agreed.




And Skarsgard did a great job as Eric Solveng (though it makes me sad that a character from Fraction's horrible first run is in the film)







I didn't really mind it, and since all of the Marvel films need to live in an Iron Man World, I can live with it.




Yeah, hopefully he shows up in the sequel.




I actually wish Kat Denning's character hadn't of even been in the film, she got really annoying really quickly.

I do wish they had kept Jane in the medical field, but I've learned to not let such changes bother me (she's been a nurse and doctor in the comics, a paramedic on AEMH and a Norse historian in The Mighty Avenger). And I could see other reasons why Thor was attracted to her (besides the gorgeousness of Natalie Portman of course); she was smart, independent, brave, etc.




I was looking more at the Cube anyway.




That's a good point, I missed that. Just like in Spider-Man 3 where they never actually called Venom by name, a mistake I didn't catch until my wife asked who Venom was after I mentioned him after we saw the film.







He wanted to gain Odin's approval by destroying Asgard's enemies utterly and ensuring the defense of Asgard; it's a flawed concept since Odin just wanted peace between them but I can see how Loki took the leap to simply annihilate them instead.

Loki did seem to have the good of Asgard at heart in the film, in his own twisted way.




I never expect Loki to defeat Thor in a hand-to-hand battle... I would have preferred after getting smacked around a bit that Loki had then inhabited the Destroyer Armor to battle Thor; it would bolster my theory that the Destroyer wasn't as powerful on Earth because there was no host inhabiting it and it would have made Loki a legitimate physical threat that could have taxed Thor to his limits.




I will definitely be getting this on DVD and watching it multiple times. I never thought I'd see a Thor movie in my lifetime, and I thought if I ever did it would suck royally. Never been so happy to be wrong.

~Hat~