Re: Thor

82
i saw this opening weekend. i liked it quite a bit more than i thought i would. lots of ridiculousness, goldblum basically playing goldblum at this point, etc., but i laughed quite a bit through what was a pretty intense action flick. it worked very well for me. can't wait to watch it again at home.

Re: Thor

83
So, we watched Thor 2 for the first time the other night, then went and saw Ragnarok the next night. I've seen the first Thor once years ago and it's one of my least favorite of the Marvel series, though I like the Thor character in the Avengers movies a lot. Thor 2 was OK, dark and with a serious tone, the dark elves as a villain were kinda generic. Then Ragnarok, whoa! This is a completely different Thor movie, and watching it the day after Thor 2 just highlighted the differences. Gonzo action and sets, lots of laughs, just bonkers. I liked it more than the others, but they are just all over the place with the Thor movies.

Re: Thor

84
I actually am looking forward to seeing Ragnarok, mostly because it's directed by Taika Waititi. Can't believe they let him direct AND make the film as weirdly funny as he wanted it to be. He knew that Thor in essence is an absolutely insane character and seem to have gone the only way with it that he could.

Re: Thor

85
It's a lot of fun, so silly that some of the more serious beats attempted don't really land.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Thor

87
TC wrote:i did eventually see the first one, not sure why i never posted. it was only OK for me. parts were really good, parts were really forced. wish they would have cast an unknown rather than portman (much as i like her) - it would have served the film better.
watched it again this weekend in keeping up with the "MCU per weekend" mandate prior to seeing infinity war. man is the first thor just not good in retrospect of all the other MCU films since. certainly the weakest of the first four of IM, The Incredible Hulk, IM2 and Thor. again, parts were ok, but parts were pretty ugh-inducing.

Re: Thor

88
TC wrote:late to the game here, but finally saw this yesterday. agree with both alexhead & mike on all counts. seems like they kind of rush through everything. i feel like this would have been a 10- or 12-issue run on paper, at least. lots of major points in thor's life happen in this film that just get kind of glazed over like, "oh well, that happened, what's next?" kind of ultimately does the god of thunder a disservice if you're trying to establish a character, but not so much if all you care about is establishing that he can show up and smash things. getting kind of fed up with the obvious lack of caring about character in the comic book movies. everything the initial detractors against comic book-based films said is sort of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy now, perpetrated by the very folks who have control. i think they'd be better off making fewer but far more memorable films, spreading out the release dates to give folks time to breathe, but that would be counter to the quick-cash-grab-while-everyone-thinks-this-is-hot/good-and-while-actors-are-still-willing/the correct age mentality. ultimately fear they are going to burn out these characters so brightly that no one will want to touch them again for a long, long time.
in my MCU-per-week fest, this past weekend was dark world. man is it not a pleasant watch. hindsight is 20/20 but this is how they kicked off phase 2? yikes.

Re: Thor

89
IM2 and Dark World are easily the worst of the MCU.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Thor

90
And I think the first Thor is actually pretty good. It expands the MCU to a cosmic realm for the first time, there's good humor throughout, Loki, there's plenty to enjoy. It's important to keep in mind how relatively modest budgets were for those early films, not to mention expectations.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Thor

91
I'm probably the only person on the face of the Earth who thinks this, but I actually liked Dark World better than Ragnarok. Ragnarok is the bottom of the MCU for me. Too much silliness.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: Thor

92
Was rewatching it last night, the sillyness is occasionally too much but for the most part I liked it, and there's actually quite a bit of good cinema going on in the craftsmanship too.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Thor

93
I saw this the other day and enjoyed it, but man does the script NOT hold up at all. Some absolutely glaring plotholes and taken as the latest installment in the "lets get Thanos to earth"-films, it doesn't feel like it advances the story at all. Would have been better as a stand-alone Thor and Hulks New Adventure thing. It was fun while it lasted (and Taika Waititis stone alien guy was hilarious) but completely forgettable as well.

Re: Thor

95
Aside from the very last shot of Portman catching Mjollnir, that all looks awful. I've never been a fan of the Taika Waititi humor approach, and this looks like they went overboard on that.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: Thor

96
it's just been made very clear to me that they are never going to make the thor movie i wish they would. even if they take the character seriously, it's always half measures at best. given that, i'd rather they go completely to the other end of the spectrum and give us some enjoyable clown thor films like the last one. so to me, might as well be this, at least i'll laugh. it's some parallel universe thor that's a clown and not a real viking, but makes for a more enjoyable film than the other ones.

Re: Thor

99
watched this over the weekend. imagine having a job where someone hands you a metric ton of magic mushrooms, several pounds of palliative care marijuana, $250 million, and asks you to make a super hero comedy/extended promotional video for a 35-year old album. what a life. does it work? well, yes and no. there were many parts where i laughed out loud for sure. the screaming goats were fantastic. thor's intentional obliviousness was oftentimes quite amusing. in fact, i'm pretty sure the TL;DR of the film must be "various one-dimensional characters react to thor being oblivious". russell crowe's zeus was in the only stop-rewind-repeat scene we had due to laughing too hard.

all of that being said - the real sentiment for this film is "not the thor we wanted, but the thor we all deserve." out the window is any respect for norse mythology. really, many scenes of being quite aggressively shitty to norse mythology and traditions. they tried being quasi-serious for two films and that didn't work well, so easier to just make it all silly and bright colors than to fix the issues i guess. since it was demonstrated that they are incapable of doing a proper serious thor, i'd much rather have clown thor than no thor i guess. i understand. my biggest problem with the film was the extensive and completely disconnected use of GnR. nothing in any of the songs used connects with anything happening on the screen (other than one of the characters deciding to change his norse name to axl, for some reason never stated). there is no call for it. and it's over, and over, and over, quite often the same goddamn song. the thought of glorifying music from an album featuring songs about heroin in a film marketed to children is bizarre. then, finally - during the closing credits - we finally get a) a great song (Dio's 'Rainbow In The Dark'), and b) one that so clearly and obviously connects to things that happened in the film, but they make it short and relegate it to the credits? just fucking weird.

Re: Thor

100
I tried watching Love and Thunder but I couldn't make it more than about 1/3 of the way in. Too jokey, and Thor seems to actually get dumber with each successive film. To be honest I think I'm starting to hit Marvel fatigue. They don't seem to be building towards any clear over all arc anymore, and what stories they are telling are wandering all over the place. I'm looking at you too Dr. Strange and your Multiverse.
Just cut them up like regular chickens