"Thor" Talkback (Spoilers)

[Ed Liu]

The God of Thunder



"You're big... I've fought bigger!" - Thor

Release Date: May 6, 2011
Studio: Paramount/Marvel
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 (Panavision)
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgard, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Rene Russo, Anthony Hopkins

Plot Summary: Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment present the epic adventure, "Thor," which spans the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is the mighty Thor (Chris Hemsworth), a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and is forced to live among humans. A beautiful, young scientist, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), has a profound effect on Thor, as she ultimately becomes his first love. It's while here on Earth that Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

Comments?

Related Threads:
-The Mighty Thor Comic Series Talkback (Spoilers)
-Thor Comic Series Talkback (Spoilers)
-Iron Man 2 Feature Talkback (Spoilers)
-The Incredible Hulk Feature Talkback (Spoilers)
-Iron Man Feature Talkback (Spoilers)

[Astrolupine]

Just got back from a midnight screening of 200+ people, ALL of whom stayed for the credits.

This was probably the most impressive of Marvel's film canon.

The Asgard scenes that looked a bit fake to me a first... are fully depth, straight out of the comics.
When Thor battles the Destroyer... it's a Jack Kirby page come to reality.
Patrick Doyle's score is perhaps the best of the Marvel film scores: majestic, haunting and romantic.

The cast all do a impressive job, although Kat Denning's character is useless and Hopkins is phoning it in a bit at times.

If there are flaws, it's that the humor fell a bit flat at times, there's a bit of confusion over how the portals work, and a questionable absence of a couple of the comics' central characters.

But overall, it is a fantastic film. I don't know if I'd rank it above IM1, but it'll be in my top 5 Marvel flicks somewhere. I guess that means Ghost Rider will have to get the boot.
Bravo, Mr. Branagh!

[Juu-kuchi]

Got back from a midnight screening of Thor.

It actually was much better than I expected it to be. Hemsworth is a terrific Thor and the majority of the cast does indeed shine, especially those of Asgard. Granted it does kindof get a bit bogged down around the comparatively mundane Earth scenes (especially when Asgard is such a spoiling experience), the cast and tension more than make up for it. Pity we didn't get more action sequences.

I'd place it a sliiiiight second in these Marvel films, right below the first Iron Man.

***

[CantThinkOfaName]

I saw it earlier this week at a promotional screening and thought it was great. The Asgard scenes were fantastic. The Earth scenes were fun and full of humor. Chris Hemsworth was awesome as Thor.

[Scirel]

This has been getting great reviews, almsot as good as Iron man 1's reviews. I can't wait to see it tonight. I`m seeing it late so hopefully there won't be a bunch of screaming kids ruining the movie.

[Dragnatek]

This has been getting great reviews, almsot as good as Iron man 1's reviews. I can't wait to see it tonight. I`m seeing it late so hopefully there won't be a bunch of screaming kids ruining the movie.

It's actually getting quite a bit more negative reviews then Ironman. Now it's still getting a lot of good reviews but 80% fresh is a lot lower then Ironman's 94% fresh.

The top critic reviews are really hurting Thor's score but there are still not a lot of those. So it could still rise back up.

[GregX]

Well, I had been planning to see the midnight showing of this movie since I first saw the leaked San Diego Comic-Con trailer. The buzz was good, and the marketing was smart, not overwhelming, but smart.

Then, on Wednesday, I discovered that my local movie theater would only have midnight showings in 3D. I personally hate 3D, and I especially hate when movies not shot in 3D are post-converted into 3D. It doesn't help that the tickets are much more expensive for 3D at all. So, I called my theater to complain, they said that the orders came from the corporate office and there was nothing they could do. I demanded to speak to the manager. He repeated the bit about the corporate office. I then told him that I and my friends had bad eye-sight and couldn't handle 3D, that we would take our business elsewhere. And then, I laid on the magic word, I said this was discrimination. And, as soon as I used that word, the manager looked at the e-mail again, and what do you know, they were authorized to play "Thor" in 2D for the midnight showing.

By the way, I have perfect 20/20 vision. And so does everyone I came to see the movie with. So, yeah, I bullied my theater into showing it in 2D that night, and pretty much showed that they were full of crap on this issue.

As for the movie itself. I thought it was awesome. Much better than "Iron Man 2." Still trying to decide if I like it better than the first "Iron Man" or not. I'm thinking I might, because Thor and his world would be so much easier to screw up, but they were handled masterfully.

Chris Hemsworth really delivered as Thor. Not once did I feel like I was watching an actor play the God of Thunder. I felt like I was watching a real Viking warrior with godlike powers there. His growth from arrogant, violent, bombastic loudmouth, to a hero was believable even if it took two or three days at most. But Hemsworth really brought the dignity and majesty to this character, even in the more comedic scenes... which were genuinely funny, even though we've seen the fish out of water scenario a million times before.

Natalie Portman seemed to really be having fun as Jane Foster, this time re-imagined as an astrophysicist, rather than a nurse. She was delightful and fun, and brought life to the love interest role, which, let's be honest, most superhero films utterly fail to do.

Anthony Hopkins really brought grace and majesty to the Asgardian All-Father, Odin. While I would have liked to see Brian Blessed in the role, I did appreciate this quiet and aging but all-powerful depiction of Odin. Speak quietly and carry a big staff. He also came off as a loving father, and while I would have liked to hear that he traded his eye for wisdom, rather than losing it in battle with the Frost Giants, I understand that in a movie, these things must be stream-lined.

Now, I have heard some people saying that Sif and the Warriors Three didn't get much in the way of characterization. While they're not wrong, I felt like we got enough to get to know who they are. I liked them a lot, they were a lot of fun. Especially when they did their LARP walk down the main street of a small New Mexico town. And Sif, well, Jaimie Alexander is easy on the eyes. I wonder how her relationship with Thor will develop over the course of this franchise.

And, last, but most certainly not least, Tom Hiddleston is Loki. As with Hemsworth, not once did I feel like I was watching an actor portray the God of Lies. I don't know where Kenneth Branagh went while casting this thing, but somehow, he found the real Loki and convinced him to play the part of himself. Now, I have seen some people say that Loki wasn't evil enough, well, I thought he was plenty evil. A great liar, and a great trickster. But subtle, like a good trickster should be. He didn't chew the scenery. He didn't come off as sneering and evil, and that's a good thing. He fooled the characters, and maybe some of the audience. I'll admit to being fooled by him at some points. When we got to the climax, and I saw what his planned endgame really was. Well, I was taken by surprise. If he was chewing the scenery, well then he wouldn't be a very good trickster, now would he? Kudos to Tom Hiddleston for not playing him as a campy supervillain and actually making him down-to-earth (uh... down-to-asgard?) and relatable.

I thought the rest of the cast was pretty good. It was a delight to see Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson again. And I enjoyed Stan Lee's cameo, as well as J. Michael Straczynski (who got story credit for the movie). And I really enjoyed the cameo from a certain archer. It's subtle, something us comic geeks will pick up on, but doesn't feel obnoxious to the uninitiated.

The plot was good, it wasn't an idiot plot. While it took some liberties with the source material, it never rang false. And, while I don't want to spoil the post-credits scene, I am really, really pumped for "The Avengers."

If there were any flaws, I felt that Asgard looked a little too polished, and rather than look like it was a place where people lived, it looked like a sound stage a lot of the time. Not all the time, but a lot of the time. I also felt that Thor's character arc moved a little quickly, a journey that should have taken weeks took three or four days. But both of those complaints are so minor, that they don't knock down my score.

I give it an A-. I liked it a lot, and the momentum towards "The Avengers" is back.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

I'm a bit surprised this is getting as decent a reception as it is. The trailers seemed to show Thor with his shirt off 90% of the time, seemingly aiming it at a female audience.

[Neo Ultra Mike]

.I have to admitt I haven't seen The two Iron Man movies or the Increidble Hulk reboot yet, so this is my first actual Marvel Movie verse film. Since you know, X-Men and Spiderman films aren't within the continuity of this movie. Luckily since I've watched a good amount of Avengers Earth Mightiest Heroes and done a little backstory checking before watching this, I wasn't really lost. And I appreciate the little nods they had to the other movies: mentioning another Tony Stark autmoaton with Loki's monstority, seeing a pre costumed avenger Hawkeye talking to SHIELD operatives and the expected Samuel L Jackson cameo at the end. Really Marvel are the only movies I've seen latley that bother acutally playing real sceens at the end of the credits that make you want to sit all the way through. Well at least they did in the last X-Men movie anyway. But enough about the other Marvel movies; Just how exactly was Thor?

I have to say the middle of the movie was defintley the best part. Starting it with Jane and the team, then having a flsahback of Thor's past was okay but things really only got interesting once Thor was cleaning house of the Ice Giants. And only started getting enjoyable when he was actually put in the "mortal" realm. I would of actually liked to see more scenes of Thor just adjusting to the mortal realms since him fighting his way through the hospital, smashing glasses to the floor and asking for horses in a pet store were good scenes. But I guess they had to move the plot along though really... is it just me or right when Thor was about to grab his hammer for the first time did things get melodramatically predicitable? It felt like the requieiste down time these movies have: Thor can't do it, gets depressed and is now fairly humbled espiecally after hearing of Odin's so called death, and then only gets back his groove when there's a giant robot attacking the city and friends. It also dosen't help that they even did the "oh look he's dead for a minute everyone's sad but then he reveals his heart of gold and bam gets thundergod powers now cause he grew as a character". I mean his character development was more noticable then in some of these superhero movies I've seen but it was also really cliche at points. Espiecally with the romance of Jane who once she fell for Thor kind of became a lot more generic. I mean this is the fourth Nataille Portman movie I've seen and even in the romantic comedies, or medival parodies the romance at least felt kind of fresh. Here though "Stay away from her" "move closer then kiss" "I'll be back for you" "she's looking for him" kind of just hit all the notes. I really do like Portman and she did good here and she wasn't as in the way as a lot of superhero girlfriends can be but she still just became the girlfriend. Which is rionic since from what I read Thor really isn't suppose to have mortal girlfriends in a good many of his mythos but they had to give him one here.

How about the rest of the cast? Pretty servicable. Odin defintley held a lot of power in his preforemnce and him beaming the team back and appearing at the end were good scenes. And I did like them trying to make Loki more sympathetic or a little more deep then other comic book movie villians. With him wanting to prove himself to Odin by having a secret plot to destroy all the ice giants due to his disgust of originally being one of them. He also kind of fell into cliche by the end espiecally with the hole "why didn't you choose me father" but hey if he can be more interesting in Avengers (which I assume he'll be in based on the ending) taking over someone's body as a trick then that could work. The rest of thor's team also kind of felt cliche. There was the guy who ate a lot, the asian, the other guy and the female warrior who I admitt did have a few cool moments (espiecally stabbing the metal giant through the neck even if it didn't do anything). Though really a lot of them felt kind of there at times. While Jane's team surprisnigly felt more fleshed out (espiecally Darcy who I wish actually had more lines) even if by the end they kind of were just there too. As were a lot of characters like Thor's Mom (who I heard was suppose to have a good supporting role but besides one scene and actually taking down one of the ice giants didn't do too much). The action was pretty good as were the effects and it wsn't a terrible movie but it wsa rather formulaic and cliche at times. I mean yeah sometimes it's the sequal where you have the character identiied that the series gets good with these Comic book movies but I don't know this felt just servicable. Like they were trying to be more grandios at first then just went into the cliche at the end. It's a decent start to the "offical" summer movie season but I'm hoping for more from other movies down the line. Espiecally the X-Men prequal and Captain America which could also be formulaic but I have a feeling due to the legacy and direction of the character could be better then the more mediocre Thor.

[Knight]

Good flick but I wasn't blown away by it.

[Darklordavaitor]

GregX basically summed up my thoughts better than I could. Here's my brief review, though.

[kaine23]

Any thoughts on the post-credits scene? Also enjoyed how they fit the post-credits scene from Iron Man 2 into the film and the Hulk bar scene.

[CyclonatorZ]

I'm going to see this Sunday afternoon with my dad, brother, and possibly one of my friends. Can't wait - it looks like the first truly great blockbuster of 2011!

[Darklordavaitor]

A random thought I had- is it just me, or was the product placing in this movie hilariously put in?

I mean, who here wanted to go to 7-11 and pick up a Big Gulp of Dr. Pepper after seeing a 7-11 and Dr. Pepper stands being blown up?

[Lelouch]

I thought the movie was pretty good. A bit better than what I expected, actually. Thor is one of the superheros I have little to no interest in so I was pleasantly surprised that he is kind of awesome. I thought Thor's home planet looked amazing, they did a nice job with all of the effects. The only thing that really bothered me was love interest angle. Yeah, I know, it's a superhero movie so there needs to be one but in this movie it just felt so forced. If and when there is a sequel after the Avengers I hope that is developed better.

Oh, and during the final fight why didn't Loki use the ice block thing (I forget what it is actually called)? Seemed like a powerful item to not use when battling Thor. And can anyone explain what the item was in the post-credit scene? I'm not well versed in comics.

[suss2it]

This is a great movie. I didn't watch any of the trailers so I had no idea what was gonna happen. I thought for sure that most of the movie would take place on Earth, but I was pleasantly surprised that it split it's time about evenly on both Earth and Asgard.

The humour was surprisingly really funny, I wasn't expecting to laugh so much during this.

The actors were also pretty good, I really like the guy who played Loki, he sold his manipulation skills perfectly.

It's a shame Samuel L. Jackson only appeared in the post-credit scene. I think both he and Ultimate!Nick Fury are awesome, so I'd rather have seen him more than Agent Coulson. Not to knock Coulson though, since he's been funny ever since Iron Man.

ETA: Also Hawkeye's cameo was awesome. I loved it when Coulson says he needs a gun on Thor, and Hawkeye goes over a bunch of guns and grabs his bow. As well as when he said (paraphrasing) "hurry up and choose, I'm starting to root for him".
All and all a great movie, and I can't wait til Captain America: First Avenger and The Avengers.

Any thoughts on the post-credits scene? Also enjoyed how they fit the post-credits scene from Iron Man 2 into the film and the Hulk bar scene.

How did the Hulk bar scene factor into the movie? I didn't notice it.

Oh, and during the final fight why didn't Loki use the ice block thing (I forget what it is actually called)? Seemed like a powerful item to not use when battling Thor. And can anyone explain what the item was in the post-credit scene? I'm not well versed in comics.

I believe it is the Cosmic Cube that's in Captain America: First Avenger.

[Gold Guy]

I saw the film this morning. I loved it. Yet another great Marvel film. The acting was really good and Thor was more likable than I thought he'd be. I don't care for Loki though; that guy is one big sneak.

So yeah, now I am stoked for Capt. America, Avengers, and the possible Thor 2.

[TnAdct1]

How did the Hulk bar scene factor into the movie? I didn't notice it.

You're not the only one asking this (of course, I haven't seen the Hulk).

I believe it is the Cosmic Cube that's in Captain America: First Avenger.

Spoiler:

It is the Cosmic Cube.

[Yojimbo]

Going to see it this weekend, hopefully. But just curious, about how many scenes had easter eggs in them?

[Knight]

Spoiler:

It is the Cosmic Cube.

When I saw that scene people were all excited and my only thought was "um what the hell is that and why are people happy to see it."