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daibhidcHey, I saw this on Monday, and never posted a review!
It was good. For all the talk about how the Avengers Movieverse has to encompass superscience and magic, just like the Marvel Universe, they actually went totally Von Daniken about it. Which is fair enough; the comics are usually vague as to whether the Asgardians are gods, or godlike extradimensional beings (and when you get down to it, what's the difference?) but rather than be vague, the movie went for it wholeheartedly: Asgard and Jotunheim are planets! Bifrost Bridge is an Einstein-Rosen wormhole! Mjolnir ... um ... does something scientific to create storms, probably. (Actually, the "If he be worthy" enchantment can only be magic, so maybe the Asgardians use both?)
The opening scene was interesting. Making Jane Foster an astrophysicist rather than a nurse made sense, given the above, and the absence of Dr Donald Blake (although he gets a reference.) When it turned out the older scientist was named Eric, I thought his surname might turn out to be Masterson, but it wasn't. The intern, Darcy, was intermittently amusing but more often annoying; given that she wasn't even studying science, I genuinely don't understand why she was there.
The battle between the Asgardians (Thor, Loki, Sif and the Warriors Three) and the Frost Giants was good, with all the Asgardians having distinct fighting styles (most obviously, Thor as raging beserker, Loki using his illusions to avoid actual battle, and Fandral the Dashing flynning it up like, well, a man with a vandyke beard).
From there the film had an interesting structure. In the comics, Thor was banished to live as a mortal on Earth to learn humility, and we pick up the story after he's done so. In the film, that's the story, so we have a superhero flick where, for most of it, the guy a) doesn't have his powers and b) is a jerk. I suppose the analogy for the first part might be Superman II, but IIRC, he wasn't really without his powers for long in that one. Thor adapting to both Earth and to being a mortal was funny, and not overdone, as was just how nuts he sounded. And then he learnt where his hammer was...
It's always fun to be reminded that, from the outside, S.H.I.E.L.D. are the sinister, covert ops Men In Black, and Agent Coulson certainly lived up to that here. And hey, nice appearance by Agent Barton, who I expected to be in the post-credits sequence, rather than actually involved in the story.
The first climax, where Thor stands alone and mortal against the Destroyer, not for the glory of battle, but to protect others, and that makes him worthy and restores his powers, was awesome. And it's not over, because now, he's got to return to Asgard and deal with Loki.
Loki's characterisation was interesting. It's certainly possible to make the case that he's sincerely doing this all for the sake of Asgard: get rid of his bufoonish brother because he's a liability; set the Frost Giants up to overplay their hand; all to make Odin proud of him. The scene where Odin reveals he adopted the Frost Giant child in the hopes of uniting the two realms had me thinking that this was getting a bit New Gods, with Loki as an evil Mr Miracle, and Scott and Orion switched round, but it worked[1].
And now Thor's trapped at home and cannot return to Earth. Except, of course, he's not because he's going to be in The Avengers[3]. Speaking of which ... is that the Cosmic Cube in the post-credit sequence? Oooh...
Criticism? Well, like I said, I don't see the point of Darcy. And I'm glad the Asgardians weren't all talking "thees" and "thous", but c'mon, one "I say thee NAY!"? For the fans?
[1]Following on from this line of thought, Wormhole Bifrost is pretty much the Boom Tube, and Sif is Big Barda[2]. Of course, Kirby was the original Thor artist, so it's appropriate for Thor to be Kirbyesque. But in the comics, as far as I'm aware, there was no political motivation for Odin to adopt Loki.
[2]I know comicbook Sif is a warrior, unlike her mythological counterpart, but I don't know when that started ... maybe she was inspired by Barda there as well, or the other way round, or they influenced each other ... comics got very complicated when Kirby and Dikto started jumping companies...
[3]And even if we didn't know that ... presumably the Asgardians built Bifrost, so they'd know how to repair it?
It was good. For all the talk about how the Avengers Movieverse has to encompass superscience and magic, just like the Marvel Universe, they actually went totally Von Daniken about it. Which is fair enough; the comics are usually vague as to whether the Asgardians are gods, or godlike extradimensional beings (and when you get down to it, what's the difference?) but rather than be vague, the movie went for it wholeheartedly: Asgard and Jotunheim are planets! Bifrost Bridge is an Einstein-Rosen wormhole! Mjolnir ... um ... does something scientific to create storms, probably. (Actually, the "If he be worthy" enchantment can only be magic, so maybe the Asgardians use both?)
The opening scene was interesting. Making Jane Foster an astrophysicist rather than a nurse made sense, given the above, and the absence of Dr Donald Blake (although he gets a reference.) When it turned out the older scientist was named Eric, I thought his surname might turn out to be Masterson, but it wasn't. The intern, Darcy, was intermittently amusing but more often annoying; given that she wasn't even studying science, I genuinely don't understand why she was there.
The battle between the Asgardians (Thor, Loki, Sif and the Warriors Three) and the Frost Giants was good, with all the Asgardians having distinct fighting styles (most obviously, Thor as raging beserker, Loki using his illusions to avoid actual battle, and Fandral the Dashing flynning it up like, well, a man with a vandyke beard).
From there the film had an interesting structure. In the comics, Thor was banished to live as a mortal on Earth to learn humility, and we pick up the story after he's done so. In the film, that's the story, so we have a superhero flick where, for most of it, the guy a) doesn't have his powers and b) is a jerk. I suppose the analogy for the first part might be Superman II, but IIRC, he wasn't really without his powers for long in that one. Thor adapting to both Earth and to being a mortal was funny, and not overdone, as was just how nuts he sounded. And then he learnt where his hammer was...
It's always fun to be reminded that, from the outside, S.H.I.E.L.D. are the sinister, covert ops Men In Black, and Agent Coulson certainly lived up to that here. And hey, nice appearance by Agent Barton, who I expected to be in the post-credits sequence, rather than actually involved in the story.
The first climax, where Thor stands alone and mortal against the Destroyer, not for the glory of battle, but to protect others, and that makes him worthy and restores his powers, was awesome. And it's not over, because now, he's got to return to Asgard and deal with Loki.
Loki's characterisation was interesting. It's certainly possible to make the case that he's sincerely doing this all for the sake of Asgard: get rid of his bufoonish brother because he's a liability; set the Frost Giants up to overplay their hand; all to make Odin proud of him. The scene where Odin reveals he adopted the Frost Giant child in the hopes of uniting the two realms had me thinking that this was getting a bit New Gods, with Loki as an evil Mr Miracle, and Scott and Orion switched round, but it worked[1].
And now Thor's trapped at home and cannot return to Earth. Except, of course, he's not because he's going to be in The Avengers[3]. Speaking of which ... is that the Cosmic Cube in the post-credit sequence? Oooh...
Criticism? Well, like I said, I don't see the point of Darcy. And I'm glad the Asgardians weren't all talking "thees" and "thous", but c'mon, one "I say thee NAY!"? For the fans?
[1]Following on from this line of thought, Wormhole Bifrost is pretty much the Boom Tube, and Sif is Big Barda[2]. Of course, Kirby was the original Thor artist, so it's appropriate for Thor to be Kirbyesque. But in the comics, as far as I'm aware, there was no political motivation for Odin to adopt Loki.
[2]I know comicbook Sif is a warrior, unlike her mythological counterpart, but I don't know when that started ... maybe she was inspired by Barda there as well, or the other way round, or they influenced each other ... comics got very complicated when Kirby and Dikto started jumping companies...
[3]And even if we didn't know that ... presumably the Asgardians built Bifrost, so they'd know how to repair it?
