Verily, thine producers of Marvel Comics' Gargantuan-Screened adventures set before themselves a most lofty task. By wanting all fair heroes to co-exist, yon producer-folk have been building to an ambitious visual and auditory feast for the young, old and nerd alike. (Okay, I'm tired of trying to write this way already.)
Thor was released on May 6th, and I've already seen it twice. It fucking rocks.
With the first and second Iron Man flicks (and The Incredible Hulk, to a lesser extent), Marvel Films has laid groundwork for what would have been, probably even ten years ago, an impossible feat: The Avengers. I mean, they've bandied around a Justice League movie before and even made a horrible TV version, but to get a bunch of Big-Name superheroes in one movie, let alone have them be the same versions of the characters played by the same actors in their own eponymous movies?
Madness, I say.
But in a day and age when you can sign little kids up for eight Harry Potter films and Hollywood is more out of ideas than ever, this is actually going to happen. They've already started filming. I won't geek out (yet) about Buffy/Angel/Firefly/Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog mastermind Joss Whedon helming it. But I will say Thor is the first of the four Avenger movies to make me really, really, reaaaaallly trying not to wet my geek drawers in excitement.
I'll try to stay away from the plot-summarizing. The cast, mostly unknowns (Renee Russo and Anthony Hopkins and a completely unrecognizeable Ray Stevenson turn up) take something that could easily come off as cheesy or being out of a kid's show and make it into geek Shakespeare. The production values show from the costumes to the FX, and the plot is not what I expected yet somehow predictable... but not in a way that feels like they're beating you over the head with 'plot twists' like most blockbuster films these days. It's almost like a fairy tale where a third of it happens to take place in the same universe that Robert Downey, Jr.'s Tony Stark, Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson and Samuel L. Jackson's Muthafuckin Nick Fury live in.
It's an enjoyable and satisfying ride. We're just starting to see the payoff of two Iron Man movies and Hulk; they're slowly but neatly pulling all these characters together, name-dropping and throwing in little easter eggs (some that work better than others; I won't say that a cameo halfway through the film was 'forced' as others have, but it wasn't necessary), and by the time the credits rolled, even before I sat through a terrible new Foo Fighters song for the 'secret' end scene, I couldn't wait for Captain America or The First Avenger or whatever the fuck they're calling it. All I know is that I'm more excited than I ever thought I'd be to see a guy wearing the American Flag as a costume in a movie.
Kirk's dad from the new Star Trek is Thor, and he's damn good. I would say this movie is probably gonna make this dude's career like Superman made Chris Reeves'. And Loki? Loki is where I really get excited for The Avengers. Yeah, Sam Jackson and Downey speaking Whedon is a pretty exciting prospect, but have you ever watched Buffy or Angel or read his run on the X-men comics? Joss writes great dialogue overall, but he loves him some villain monologuing and posturing. This guy as Loki is going to chew up scenery on a level not seen since Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs.
And speaking of Sir Hopkins, his restrained performance as Odin is note-perfect. Calm, fatherly and reserved at turns, but loud and bellowing when he needs to be. Natalie Portman turns in a great performance as Jane, Thor's love interest, dialing up all her girl-next-door charm to the point that you really believe she's a pretty nerd girl who's awestruck by the chivalrous Thor kissing her hand. The Warriors Three are cool, the chick playing Sif was good as well (although I must question how sensible her shoes are for fighting. Heels? Even the new Wonder Woman wears flights, guys.), and the human characters in the cast hit all the right notes.
And by "right notes" I should say, did we really need Kat Dennings as the comic relief? I get it. She's the almost-fugly I'm-so-snarky-I'm-cute broad in movies these days, and I want to like her, but at the same time I wanted Natalie Portman to stove her face in. It's a very minor complaint, but once the newness of the film wears off, I'm willing to bet that her dialogue is going to have many of us dorks rolling our eyes.
And that's about the only complaint I can come up with without ruining any details (and even those are minor). This has my hopes set very high for Cap's movie. And on a DC fan note, I really hope Green Lantern can stack up to this. I know they'll probably be very different films outside of being Comic movies, but if GL isn't up to par, DC and WB need to get their poop in a group real fuckin' quick. It was seriously that good. Even the girlfriend, who had not even a cursory knowledge of Thor or his character, enjoyed it quite a bit.
So fly thine ass like Mighty Thor wielding Mjolnir in a missile-like trajectory to thy nearest multiplex! 'Tis a fine moving picture, and leaveth this dork wanting more of the Thunder God's adventures!
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