This past evening, I had the most bodacious opportunity to attend a free screening of THOR the LA Times put on in Burbank for Geoff Boucher’s Hero Complex blog. If the opportunity to watch a big blockbuster a few days ahead of a few million Americans wasn’t appealing enough, the show was also followed by an interview Boucher conducted with Chris Hemsworth and Kenneth Branagh. You maniacs have already heard G-Man, Babs, Norm and Rorie’s take on this fourth Marvel Studios movie, so I’ll keep my thoughts on the film focused on points relating to the post-movie discussion.
- From bit players to supporting actors and from mighty Aesir to mere mortals, there wasn’t a single performance that felt out of place. Were I to pick favorites though, I’d name Tom Hiddleston as the stand-out. Branagh never outright compared Loki to Iago (a Shakespearean villain he once portrayed,) but his description of the mercurial heel- - he's either the universe’s greatest actor or simply an insecure little brother who doesn’t know what he wants - - drew strong correlations to my mind. Hiddleston’s plays the part much more understated than the cackling trickster portrayed in the comics and he creates a scarier and more nuanced supervillain than we’ve usually seen on screen.
- It’s funny how Bifrost was singled out as the hardest aspect of Asgard to get audiences to suspend their belief over. Branagh said the first and last questions asked during production concerned the Rainbow Bridge and he actually saw it as a challenge to take on such an outright piece of fantasia. I found that all a little ironic because Bifrost didn’t strike me as being that much different than it is in the comics (barring the STARGATE observatory,) yet it was the most frequented setting in the flick.
- Ray Stevenson has some serious range. I can't believe Volstagg was played so well by the same guy who blew so many heads up as the Punisher.
- Hemsworth mentioned working with a personal trainer named "Paradox" who advised him on how to carry himself as Thor (he also told all the Frost Giants how they should walk.) While I was a little surprised that they went all the way with the Mjolnir super-moves by having Thor fly and spin the hammer around like a propeller, the open-handed combat had much more a Jason Bourne texture than Thor's fight style in the comics. Like Hugh Jackman did for Wolverine, Hemsworth modeled his body language after Mike Tyson's in-ring ferocity, and it definitely showed.
- Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention, but the Easter Egg ratio seemed a little less concentrated in this one. After all the hullabaloo, I didn't notice the Infinity Gauntlet in Odin's vault, but I did smile over the billboard inviting tourists to "journey into mystery." Branagh had a great attitude about the subject, though, especially a certain character's cameo. He thought it was cool, not intrusive, to bring more contours into his movie
Those are my select thoughts in liue of a full review. None of you maniacs have any reason not to see this. It's a perfect summer movie and, for my money, it was a more enchanting and immersive 3D than AVATAR.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE . Order them on Amazon here & here . Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
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