film babble blog: Thor

Showing posts with label Thor. Show all posts

Thursday, July 07, 2022

Another THOR-Mulaic Marvel Movie, But That’s Okay, I Guess

Opening tonight at every multiplex in the multiverse:

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER

(Dir. Taika Waititi, 2022)

This fourth THOR film, the 29th movie in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), checks off all the expected boxes with its air-borne battles, callbacks, cameos, catchphrases, and spectacle-filled set-pieces. It’s the Marvel movie that fans know they’re going to get from before they ever saw the trailer. It’s the big summer superhero blockbuster we all feel like we’ve seen a million times. But I’ve come here to appraise the return of Chris Evans’ Norse god, not just toss off a jaded dismissal, so I’ll say that the film pops with enough laughs, and likable character activity for me to be okay with it.

Director and co-writer Taika Waititi, who also appears via motion capture as the Thing-like Korg, follows his previous turn, THOR: RAGNAROK, with a less weightier story about Thor saving the children of New Asgard from Gorr the God Butcher, intensely portrayed by a Nosferatu-esque Christin Bale (easily the most compelling thing on screen in the entire film). That’s the THUNDER.

The LOVE in the title comes from the rekindled romance with Natalie Portman reprising her role as Dr. Jane Foster, who wasn’t in the third film. Deemed worthy by the Mjoinir Hammer (whatever), Portman’s Dr. Foster joins the action as her own version of Thor dressed in likewise garb (Evans: “And that’s my look”), but her real fight is with cancer, an element that Waititi and co-screenwriter, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, fail to give much emotional power.

Still, Evans and Portman do conjure up some cute charm together, and, after such performances in the strained sci-fi of ANNIHILATION and LUCY IN THE SKY, it’s nice to be reminded that Portman can be an effective comic actress.

Alongside Thor and Mrs. Thor (She-Thor? Lady-Thor? I’m not looking it up), we’ve got the always welcome Tessa Thompson as Asgardian warrior, Valkyrie; Jamie Alexander as Lady Sif, the aforementioned Waititi’s soft-spoken Korg, and a glorified cameo by the Guardians of the Galaxy (Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper), who aren’t given much to do – they aren’t even accompanied by some ‘70s K-Tel hit on the soundtrack.

One amusing factor is that the premise is packaged in a Guns N Roses theme with several of the band’s ‘80s anthems and power ballads blaring throughout, and even a character who wants to be called Axl. GNR’s tuneage even flows through Michael Giacchino’s orchestral score – I still have the instrumental strains of “Sweet Child o’ Mine” bouncing around in my head hole days later.

What’s both good and bad about THOR’s fourth can be summed up in the centerpiece sequence of the film, which features Thor ‘n friends traveling to Ominpresent City (whatever) to seek out the help of Russell Crowe (appearing have a blast as the chubby, smarmy deity) as the god, Zeus, in his lavish gold palace. It plays out as an attempt to merge the movie’s mythology with Mel Brooks by way of dick jokes, and that results in a bunch of hit or miss back and forth one-liner.

Working better are such running gags as Portman’s brain-storming of catchphrases, Matt Damon, Sam Neill, and Luke Hemsworth reprising their roles from RAGNAROK as Asgardian acting troupe versions of Loki, Odin and Thor; and a pair of giant screaming goats, Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder. Hey, these gags do actually work better than they sound, but I’m not claiming it’s all primo material.

As summer sequels go, THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER is a typical offering that should basically satisfy superhero fans or just folks looking for a couple hours of air-conditioned entertainment. These movies feel more and more disposable the more they make, but it feels so futile and useless to be cynical about them.

So if you like Marvel movies, Evans, Bale, Waititi, Portman, GNR, and/or screaming goats, you’ll most likely go for this round of more THOR. If you don’t care for those things, I’m not sure why you read this far.

More later...

Monday, November 13, 2017

Branagh's Misguided MURDER & More THOR

And now, catching up with a couple of movies currently playing at every multiplex:

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS

(Dir. Kenneth Branagh, 2017)

Kenneth Branagh takes on the directing duties, and the starring role of Detective Hercule Poirot in this fourth adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1934 bestselling novel, which never leaves the shadow of Sydney Lumet’s 1974 version.

In that first adaptation, Albert Finney is initially unrecognizable as Poirot with his slicked-back black hair, outrageous mustache, and stodgy demeanor, but the blond Branagh just looks like himself, only with similarly exaggerated facial hair. His accent, an attempt at a thick Belgian brogue, even disappears a number of times.

Branagh’s Poirot fronts a cast comprised of A-listers Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad, Michelle Pfeiffer, Willem Dafoe, Penélope Cruz, and Judi Dench, alongside lesser known names such as Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odom Jr., Olivia Colman, Lucy Boynton, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Tom Bateman.

Yeah, it’s a big ensemble, so, as can be guessed, most of these players gets a limited amount of screen-time so if you’re a Depp fan, be warned that his role is a glorified cameo at best.

Especially since Depp, as rich businessman Samuel Ratchett, is the murder victim so he’s a corpse throughout the bulk of the picture. As the well worn mystery trope goes, the rest of the cast all have dark connections to Rachett, which means tons of motives, and Poirot interrogates the suspects one by one for his investigation.

This all takes place while the train has been stranded on its route by an avalanche and they have to wait for help to arrive. Unlike MURDER ’74, Branagh takes the passengers off of the train for a lot of the second half, and even stages the big reveal in the exterior of the tunnel the train has been stalled in front of.

This movie is full of such visual choices – the camera swoops over snowy mountaintops, cranes from the bottom to the top of the frame while its subjects stay in the middle of the show, and, most annoyingly, films two entire scenes from directly overhead. As gorgeous as much of the scenery shot by cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos is, these show-off moves distract from the story and make what could’ve been a tense gritty remake into something that looks like a glossy magazine spread.

But the most frustrating thing about Branagh’s take on the 83-year old story is how he botches the conclusion so that it has precious little impact. The construction of the big reveal is as rickety as the CGI bridge the train is trapped on. Branagh, working from a screenplay by Michael Green (BLADE RUNNER 2049, LOGAN), has fashioned a self indulgent, yet pretty looking muddle out of Christie’s most famous whodunit.

It just doesn’t hold a candle to what Lumet did with this material in ’74. Consider the superiority of that film’s all-star cast – Finney’s Poirot is joined by Lauren Bacall, Anthony Perkins, Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York, John Gielgud, and Jacqueline Bisset (if you younger readers don’t know these names - spend some time with movies made before STAR WARS) - the infinitely sharper script by Oscar winning screenwriter Paul Dehn, and its suitably claustrophobic interiors which are free of any visual trickery.

So obviously, my recommendation is to skip Branagh’s misguided MURDER ‘17, and seek out Lumet’s much classier ’74 version. I bet it’ll make for a more satisfying experience, and you will be spared about how this new one so cynically sets up a sequel - Poirot gets a message at the end from Egypt about being needed to investigate a death on the Nile (get it?).

THOR: RAGNARAK
(Dir. Taika Waititi, 2017)

We’re now halfway through Phrase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie franchise, so here’s the third installment of the THOR adventures, currently # 1 at the box office, which I enjoyed a lot more than the first two (the first one was directed by Branagh incidentally).

THOR: THE DARK WORLD: A Marvel Mess Of A Sorry Super Hero Sequel

Now playing at multiplexes in all of the 9 realms:

THOR: THE DARK WORLD
(Dir. Alan Taylor, 2013)

One thing certainly hasn’t changed for me in this follow-up to both Kenneth Branaugh’s 2011 origin story, and Joss Whedon’s 2012 super hero ensemble smash THE AVENGERS:’s Thor, portrayed by Chris Hemsworth, remains my least favorite member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

However Hemsworth, who showed some decent chops in Ron Howard’s RUSH earlier this year, isn’t the one to blame. It’s the fault of screenwriters Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely who fail to make the Norse God into much of a compelling character. They also don’t succeed in creating much excitement in their unwieldly plotline, which I struggled to follow through tons of nonsensical exposition and a bunch of boring set pieces.

This installment deals with Thor being forced to team up with Loki (Tom Hiddleston, reprising his villainous role from THOR and THE AVENGERS) in order to stop an ancient race of Dark Elves led by Malakith (Christoper Eccleston) from conquering the 9 realms, of which Earth is one. Threading through this is the threat of a floating red fluid life force called the Aether that infects Thor’s love interest, the returning Natalie Portman.

Also reprising their roles from the first one are Anthony Hopkins as Thor’s father, Idris Elba as Norse God Heimdall, Stellan Skarsgård as Dr. Erik Selvig, Rene Russo as Thor’s stepmother, and for comic relief there's Kat Dennings, taking a break from her trashy sitcom Two Broke Girls.

So there’s a likable cast caught up in all this mayhem, and fans of the formula will surely appreciate the surprise appearance from one of the other Avengers, the obligatory Stan Lee cameo, and the requisite after the credits stinger, (sadly Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson doesn't pop up as he’s busy with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. these days), but these elements just don't have their usual zing here.

No matter how high they try to make the stakes, what with the fate of the universe hanging in the balance, it never really seems like Thor or anybody or anything is in any danger.

As you’ve probably seen in the trailers, Thor obliterates a ginormous rock monster into tiny boulder bits with just one swing of his mighty hammer and then casually tosses off a standard action hero one-liner: “Anyone else?” This got a big laugh at the screening I attended, but I groaned. The scene is intended for us to be impressed by the power of our protagonist, but for me it perfectly displays that the indestructible Thor is one smug douche. And people say Superman is boring.

Of course, we don’t trust Loki to begin with so none of the twists in their scenario have any impact, but there’s a little fun to be had with Hemsworth and Hiddleston’s bickering - a little.

Unfortunately again there’s zero chemistry between Hemsworth and Portman, who acts like she’s an awkward lovesick character in a fluffy rom com, except when she’s in an alien space junk-induced trance in strained close-ups.

THOR INTO DARKNESS, sorry, THOR: THE DARK WORLD doesn’t even try to be bigger and better than the first one. It’s just another big ass CGI-saturated sequel outfitted in useless 3D – seriously, I can’t recall a single instance of the imagery being helped by the tediously trendy device.

The only real surprise for me was the odd bit of casting of Chris O’Dowd, the Irish comic actor who comedy fans know as Kristen Wiig's love interest in BRIDESMAIDS and Roy in the British sitcom The IT Crowd, as a guy who goes on a blind date with Portman early on in the movie before Thor returns to earth.

O’Dowd is only in two scenes: the date scene which gets interrupted by Dennings, and a later bit in which O’Dowd phones Portman for a second date, and his signal somehow helps her and Thor reconnect to another realm or something, I can’t remember exactly how.

O’Dowd is on the sidelines disconnected from all the chaotic events, with no character being straight with him, or caring that he has no idea what’s going on. In the mist of this Marvel mess, I so know how he felt.

More later...

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

New Releases On Blu Ray & DVD 4/2/13

The biggest release, literally, today on Blu ray is the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One - Avengers Assembled (10-Disc Limited Edition Six-Movie Collector's Set). The set contains:

MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray)
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray)
THOR (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray)
IRON MAN 2 (Blu-ray)
THE INCREDIBLE HULK (Blu-ray)
IRON MAN (Blu-ray)

Also included are deleted scenes, extended scenes, featurettes, animatics, collectible packaging with exclusive memorabilia (prop reproductions and artifacts), and an exclusive inside look at IRON MAN 3 and other films from Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Looks pretty f-in’ exhaustive which is great for Marvel movie fanboys, but may come as across as overkill to casual fans like me. I mean, I wouldn’t even have room on any shelf in my house for the damn thing!

Anyway, on to what I think is the best release of the day: Don Coscarelli’s 2012 horror comedy JOHN DIES AT THE END. I saw it a few months ago at the 14th annual Nevermore Film Festival at the Carolina Theatre in Durham (same place I’ll be in a few days for Full Frame), and it’s a meta treat. Special features include a commentary with Director Coscarelli, stars Chase Williamson, and Rob Mayes, and producer Brad Baruh, “Getting Sauced: The Making of JOHN DIES AT THE END” featurette, “Creature Corps: The Effects of Soy Sauce” featurette, deleted scenes; casting sessions, Fangoria interview with Giamatti, and theatrical trailers, one of which you can see here:

The Bible: The Epic Miniseries also comes out today. That’s the one made by the History Channel that has come under fire for having an actor playing Satan in it that some think resembles President Obama. As that’s all I know about it, I’ll move on.

A classy yet dull HBO telefilm, Philip Kaufman’s HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN drops today on Blu ray and DVD. Concerning the romance between Ernest Hemingway (Clive Owen) and WWII correspondent Martha Gellhorn (Nicole Kidman), the lofty production starts off interestingly enough with a charismatic meeting of the leads at a bar in Key West in 1936, but gradually becomes a stiff set of scenes, narrated by Kidman in docudrama style, that all too routinely tell the tale.

The attempt to replicate old grainy footage of the era doesn’t quite work either. The intriguingly chosen cast - an odd mix of recognizable faces including Parker Posey, Tony Shaloub, David Straithairn, Robert Duvall, and Metallica’s Lars Ulrich (!) - helps keep it moving from historical footnote to footnote, but at 155 minutes it often drags maddeningly. For those who are fans of the actors or the Hemingway angle, there are a few Special Features worth checking out: Audio commentary with Kaufman and editor Walter Murch, and a few “Making of” featurettes.

Several films that I haven’t seen come out today as well: Barry Battle’s action comedy THE BAYTOWN OUTLAWS starring Billy Bob Thornton (which looks awful), Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg’s baseball documentary KNUCKLEBALL (which looks possibly good), and Nick Love’s update of a ‘70s British TV crime drama THE SWEENEY, starring Ray Winstone (which looks like it could go either way).

More later...

Friday, May 04, 2012

THE AVENGERS Starts The Summer Movie Season Off Right

THE AVENGERS (Dir. Joss Whedon, 2012)

After years of baiting fans with cameos, visual nods, and Easter Eggs embedded in their movies, Marvel Studios puts them all together in this masterful smash-up/mash-up assemblage of their major comic book characters, which starts the summer movie season off right.

Joss Whedon's snappy screenplay and energetic direction really delivers the goods, with a cast and special effects crew that never stops trying to entertain, right up to the after-credits bonus material.

For those who haven't been paying attention, we've got returning champ Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), along with Captain America/Steve Rodgers (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth); both fresh from their summer hero hits last year, Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and The Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo; the only actor here who hasn't previously played their character).

Samuel L. Jackson as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury, and Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow are also on hand to provide extra fire-power against the film’s villain Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who was also the antagonist in THOR (maybe my least favorite of the Marvel movies), as he’s Thor’s adoptive brother and rival.

Loki, with the help of something called a Tesseract and an alien army, is trying to take over the world (of course), but those pesky Avengers keep getting in the way.

You know the plot isn’t what folks are coming to see here, but this movie’s not just about breathtaking bombast, furious fight-scenes, and spectacular sequences stuffed with eye-popping CGI – although there’s lots of that.

What elevates it is that the film actually cares about how its characters interact and clash with one another. Evan’s Captain America is rubbed wrong by Downey Jr.’s snarky arrogance (Whedon gives Downey Jr. the sharpest funniest lines, as expected), and everyone is on edge about just what Ruffalo’s Hulk will do when his rage famously takes hold.

Ruffalo’s take on Banner is one of many strong elements on display in “The Avengers.” It’s a more nuanced and edgy performance than what Eric Bana and Ed Norton brought in their respective portrayals. Now I’m looking forward to seeing Ruffalo own his own Hulk movie.

Clark Gregg, as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Coulson, finally gets a more substantial role after his glorified cameos in the previous Marvel movies, and he makes the most of it. A surprising yet fitting addition to the ever expanding universe is Cobie Smulders (Robin on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother) as another Avengers ally, Maria Hill. Smulders gets a considerable amount of screen-time, and like everybody else here, she doesn’t waste it.

The New York City battle finale outdoes the fun destruction of just about every other super hero movie ever (take that Superman, Spiderman, X-Men, etc.!), and it's hilarious to boot.

Whedon does a fantastic job juggling this vast array of characters while arranging mighty action set-pieces (particularly the sequence aboard the ginormous S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier).

So there you have it - the must-see super hero movie event of the summer. That is, until THE DARK KNIGHT RISES comes out.

More later...

Friday, May 06, 2011

THOR: The Film Babble Blog Review

THOR (Dir. Kenneth Branaugh, 2011)

(Warning: This review may contain Spoilers!)

Summer doesn't officially begin until late June, but the summer movie season began last week with the opening of the franchise front-runner FAST FIVE. However the season doesn't really feel like it's underway until a big-ass superhero flick swoops in, so today we get us the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe: THOR.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is a cocky (and somewhat douchey) Norse God who lives in the splendiforic golden CGI-ed city of Asgard off in the heavens above, in another realm, or something.

Thor's father, the King of their realm, played with his patented gravely gravitas by Anthony Hopkins, is ready to let his son take the throne, but an attack by a gang of scaly skinned creepy creatures called Frost Giants throws that plan out of whack.

The Frost Giants steal the source of Asgard's power "the Casket of Ancient Winters." Defying their father, Thor and his brother (Tom Hiddleston) go after their frigid foes into their icy realm, along with their gung-ho troop of hearty warriors (Tadanobu Asano, Joshua Davis, Ray Stevenson, and Jaimie Alexander).

A busy and bombarding battle goes down, which doesn't please Hopkins so he banishes his son to Earth, and throws his hammer of power down there with him.

It then becomes a bit of a fish out of water story with Thor meeting up with a trio of scientific researchers in a desert in New Mexico where he crash lands - Natalie Portman (much more animated than in YOUR HIGHNESS), a befuddled Stellan Skarsgård, and the wise-cracking Kat Dennings - who take him in as they just happen to be up on Nordic mythology.

Thor's predicament is that he has to fight through a military instillation that has surrounded his mighty hammer in the desert since, like the Arthurian legend, it can not be removed by just anyone.

The film gets bogged down in noisy fight scenes and impenetrable exposition that I couldn't follow recognize the weight of, but since I don't know the comic from which this is based, that stuff may mean a lot more to the hardcore. I mean, I get that Thor must fight his brother Hiddleston, who turns out to be half Frost Giant I guess, and take on a giant destructive robot in order to restore the kingdom of Asgard and awaken his father from some deep sparkling golden slumber, I think.

It was hard to follow or care about this because Hemsworth has little charisma or believability in the role, and his being paired with Portman is forced and fairly chemistry-less.

Those elements don't completely cripple THOR, because on the surface it's a serviceable super hero movie with plenty of fast paced action that folks just wanting mindless thrills will likely go for.

It's also fun to see how the Marvel movies are building what my fellow local entertainment writer friend Zack Smith calls an "uber continuity" with Clark Gregg reprising his role as Agent Coulson from IRON MAN 1 & 2, a cameo by Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye, and an after the end-credits scene, which I won't spoil, but will just say that it foreshadows events to come in THE AVENGERS, so stay until the very end.

I was very surprised to see that this was directed by Kenneth Branaugh because in retrospect except for some nuanced acting from a few members of the cast, there is precious little in this assembly line formula that could be reasonably attributed to him.

While I normally avoid 3-D, I didn't have a choice with the advance screening I saw of this. I didn't get a headache, but apart from a few scattered arresting visuals, the 3-D added very little.

THOR is bombastic and in your face enough without such enhancement, but I bet kids of all ages will eat it up in whatever format.

More later...