At the Movies: Thor (2011)

It’s a huge surprise that Thor is both accessible and good fun, but it’s a pretty thin movie held up by excellent effects and a decent supporting cast.

Thor’s one of those characters who’s never quite right however you look at him. The secret identity thing with Donald Blake doesn’t make a lot of sense, his stiff way of talking feels forced and his mythology can sometimes feel more like Asterix than something that sits alongside Spider-man and Wolverine. Arguably only the Thor from the Ultimate universe with his refreshingly normal way of talking and a healthy dose of scepticism about the character’s origin suits a modern audience.

Happily, Kenneth Brannagh’s Thor is a nice mix of the best bits of all the versions of Thor.  The mythology is streamlined to something approximating Earth X’s gods-as-aliens concept with the “realms” of Midgard et al very clearly planets and the Rainbow Bridge a fantastic looking means of creating wormholes to get there. In fact it’s worth saying that Asgard and all the mythological elements of Thor as reimagined super-technology look absolutely amazing. The potentially daft looking Rainbow Bridge in particular is an unexpected visual highlight.

Chris Chemsworth also makes a decent Thor and Anthony Hopkins shines as Odin, his father and ruler of Asgard. Even the Warriors Three, one of the most outright embarrassing parts of Thor’s supporting cast work well in context.

It’s when Thor is depowered and banished to Earth that the weaknesses of the movie really come out. Principally that there isn’t much of a story at all. Thor meets some locals, including a pretty astrophysics buff, and has some fish-out-of-water fun before getting his powers back and there we go. There’s no big threat to Earth or the characters we meet. Instead there’s a murky power struggle on Asgard that feels underwritten and the obligatory SHIELD scenes that, as in last years Iron Man 2, use up minutes of screen time to promote a totally different movie.

Is that such a bad thing? Arguably no, especially with such a risky property. What it does very well is make Thor seem cool and make his world an amazing exciting place that you want to see more of. Given the enormous drag factor of the actual comic character, that’s kind of a miracle.

3/5

At the Movies: GL Trailer hits and an all new Judge Dredd!

Great comic movie news this week about two of my favourite comic book heroes. An official GL trailer that wasn’t awful and a shot from the all new Judge Dredd movie (hitting 2012) starring Karl Urban as the world’s greatest post-apocalyptic fascist cop.

What’s got me more excited? It’s almost a tie. As fun as the GL trailer is, the sheer possibilities there are with a hardcore 18 cert Judge Dredd movie have me slavering with fanboy anticipation. Here’s the single shot they’ve released below:

Keep the helmet on and I’m sold! But what are they going to have in there? The fatties? The robot rebellion? Apocalypse War? Dark Judges? 2012 can’t come quick enough!

Nearly forgot about the Gl trailer. Let’s agree to forget about the unfinished construct effects and Carol’s terrible delivery of the “you have the ability to overcome great fear”. Seriously what? Props for working it into a conversation but really. Reynolds as Hal feels like a mixture of Johnny Storm and Tony Stark, and overall it’s looking bright and cheery. In fact much more colourful and fun than the early shots made it seem and it’s giving me more confidence in the project. Could they have the guts to include the wilder elements of GL? It’s looking hopeful. Bd’g the alien squirrel GL on screen kicking ass and fighting for justice would be a thing of beauty. Finally I’m getting excited about this movie.

Check out the trailer:

At the Movies: A big green bogie?

A few sites are posting the latest image from 2011’s Green Lantern movie, with Ryan Reynolds in the decidedly underwhelming costume. Take a look below:

It’s hard to decide what the worst part of the costume is. Is it that they’ve tried to mate Tron with the Spider-man suit? Is it that there’s no variation in colour? Could it be the mask, which blatantly doesn’t look right at all? Or is it the hair? (Possibly the worst screen hair since Bobby Drake in the X-Men movies). Nothing about it says Hal Jordan.

Look over here for some of the other concept art that’s been released so far and despite the Guardians looking like vampires and everything being way too dark, Tomar-Re, Killowog and Abin-Sur all look kind of promising. The rumoured 3D could also really help the movie.

But the big stickler is GL. Ryan Reynolds was no-ones ideal Hal Jordan to start with and in a costume that makes it look like Ion had it off with Power Ring from Earth 3 he’s in danger of hamstringing the whole project.

It’s going to need one hell of a good trailer to make up for this.

At the Movies: Iron Man 2

The first Iron Man was a success no-one anticipated.  A b-list character, an actor who’s career was at best c-list and had failed to make an impact after long struggles with drugs and alcohol. But against all odds, and maybe down to the low expectations giving everyone room to breathe, the result was a fun movie with an undeniably enjoyable Tony Stark.

Now with the success behind it and some mighty expectations from the backers, does the sequel pull off the same magic? Mostly yes, when it’s allowed to be an Iron Man movie. Stark and Pepper have the same chemistry, a recast James Rhodes does well as the unexpectedly-good-in-this War Machine (becoming a side-kick you actually want to see). And Micky Rourke’s swarthy Russian genius Venko/Whiplash proves more than a match for Stark, with some marvellously impressive electrified  cables capable of of slicing speeding cars in half. The additional of a sleazy but ineffective business rival who plays like a combination of Batman Returns‘ Max Shreck and Batman Forever‘s Nygma is a little too much but he’s at least worthwhile and keeps the story flowing.

What’s less fun is the inclusion of S.H.I.E.L.D. in it’s longest ‘cameo’  so far in a Marvel Studios movie. Slinky as Black Widow may be, she and Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson again) add absolutely nothing of value to the movie and their scenes feel somewhat painfully inserted into a finished script just to promote the upcoming Avengers movie. Their scenes could easily be cut out without impacting the plot, making a tighter less rambling movie.

Iron Man 2 is still a lot of fun. The finale is over too quickly almost as soon as it’s about to get started but there’s plenty of action and humour and it’s definitely worth checking out on the big screen.

They got lucky this time, but Marvel might want to ask itself whether it’s really worth damaging movies just to advertise an upcoming feature.  Is promoting an Avengers movie at this stage really so important? There’s still Thor and Captain America to get through, neither of whom have that good a track record or to be perfectly honest are that inspiring as characters. If any one of them bombs, you’re tarnishing decent properties by association.  Let Thor and Captain America succeed or fail on their own terms. THEN maybe think about a crossover feature.

I’d be more than happy to see another Iron Man movie but for gods sake let’s keep it an Iron Man movie. Don’t waste my time with freeloaders.

3/5