Thor

[Bunk]

Looks pretty generic to me like Clash of the Titans. 

Dude... There was more plot and political intrigue between the Gods in that five minute trailer than you got in the entirety of Clash of the Titans.

Olympus in Clash consisted of Neeson and Fiennes saying a couple of nonsensical lines, some extras standing around looking God-like, jump ahead an hour so Neeson can get the money shot line in, jump 15 more minutes to what I assume was the end of the movie for Neeson to fail to make any more sense (not sure on the last part, I'd already turned the movie off by then).

[K9]

Adequately entertaining, not as good as Iron Man

I don't think much of Thor as a superhero, and none of the characters in this are particularly interesting, I didn't really care what happened to most of them.

[Merusk]

So would you recommend watching it this weekend if you're "meh" about Thor or instead try to find a different movie and catch this on Netflix/ DVD?  It's the wife's B-day tomorrow and going to a movie on the closest Saturday is a tradition.

[Evildrider]

Well Thor won't be too bad with the womenfolk as it has some romance within it.  Altogether I liked it.  I think they did a great job of showing both the Asgardian aspects as well as the Earth parts. 

[DraconianOne]

It was refreshing that it wasn't a typical origin story - Thor started as Thor with all his powers. There's no lame scientist discovering a magic hammer and being transformed - it's just who he is.

FAKE EDIT because Merusk posted: I am very meh about Thor and comics in general but I like superhero films. If your missus enjoyed either of the Iron Man films then you could do worse than go see this. I don't think it's quite as good as Iron Man - mainly because RDJ isn't in it - but I do think it holds up better than IM2. YMMV

On the other hand, if she's amused by good looking, buff Australians then this might be right up her alley. So to speak. Plus there's quite a sweet romance of sorts. Apparently.

[K9]

You could probably do a lot worse than see it. The 'romance' is pretty much paper thin though, I really wouldn't sell it to anyone as part of the movie.


As a superhero romp with Ironman levels of production quality it's good fun. As an epic saga for the ages, not so much. n.b. I saw it in 2D and was fine, I doubt 3D would have made much difference.

The chap who plays the lead is pretty damn hench though, and he's tall. At 6'4" he towers over the rest of the cast. Intentionally of course.

[Tannhauser]

He also played Kirk's dad in the new ST.  I am going to see this Sat afternoon, it looks like fun.

[Merusk]

Well Thor won't be too bad with the womenfolk as it has some romance within it.  Altogether I liked it.  I think they did a great job of showing both the Asgardian aspects as well as the Earth parts. 

My wife is a geek.  Previous movies we've seen for her birthday were: all the Spiderman (as they all opened 1st week of May or thereabouts) a Harry Potter, Iron Man and  the Scorpion King.   So long as it's fun, it's usually a good call, romance is not a requirement.   (In fact, the only romance I've ever taken her to was Titanic.  I won't go to them  )

[LK]

I wonder why Natalie Portman does these roles that are (from my perspective) beneath her; I'd like to understand her perspective so I'm informed about who she is as a person. Does she pick these projects for fun? It's confusing to sort out in my head aside from "Gimme money. Lots of money."

To go from Star Wars to Black Swan to Your Highness to Thor... I almost want to know about who she is as a person or what her priorities are because it seems like she's grabbing up every role no matter how Artsy or Entertainment it is.

[Lakov_Sanite]

thor and your highness were probably done deals before black swan was in production and even then it was her break out/time to get artsy role. I doubt she was even thinking oscar at the time. I expect her future roles to be a bit heftier but I wouldn't expect anything this year.

[Fordel]

She picks them for fun/money is my guess. Didn't she miss her own movie debut in the starwars prequels to study for exams or something? She doesn't seem very artsy from what I can tell, there's no THIS IS MY CRAFT BAAAW stuff that I've seen.


I admit, I don't pay all that much attention to what she says 

[Ingmar]

Same reason Michael Caine or Anthony Hopkins will be in anything. Work is work.

[UnSub]

Plus the order we see films released in doesn't necessarily reflect the order they were shot in.

[Sir T]

Same reason Michael Caine or Anthony Hopkins will be in anything. Work is work.

And Micheal Caine says flat out that over 50% of the films he was in were shit. (His personal pick of the worst film he ever was in was "The Swarm," if only because they kept the bees penned up in their hives till the director needed them to swarm out, and as a result the bees shat all over him as they wont do it inside the hive)

Vincent Price, in one of his last interviews, had the same work is work attitude.

[Mazakiel]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoneyDearBoy


That has a decent listing of various examples if you're bored. 

As Michael Caine apparently said about working on Jaws IV: "I have never seen it [the film], but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific!"

[Tannhauser]

There's a great quote from Michael Caine about his appearing in a Jaws movie paying for a house.  Something like "Yes, it's a shitty movie but you should see the house I bought with the money!"

NP has done some weird stuff, liked her in V for Vendetta (stellar film), I think that's pretty cool she is open for almost any role.  It's given her high visibility, can't think of a young actress who's getting more work.

Also glad to see Mila Kunis having success.  Not sure why, maybe it's my peener talking?  

[Der Helm]

As Michael Caine apparently said about working on Jaws IV: "I have never seen it [the film], but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific!"

There's a great quote from Michael Caine about his appearing in a Jaws movie paying for a house.  Something like "Yes, it's a shitty movie but you should see the house I bought with the money!"

Heh... 5 seconds. 

[Sand]

I wonder why Natalie Portman does these roles that are (from my perspective) beneath her; I'd like to understand her perspective so I'm informed about who she is as a person.

You do realize that comes off as a wee bit creepy right? 

[K9]

James Franco is another great actor who seems to jump between great movies and awful movies.

[lamaros]

There's a good quote from John Malkovich about why he wasn't in Goodfellas:

"It sort of came at a bad time in my life, when I wasn't feeling well and didn't want to think about working. It's hard to explain why you end up in Eragon and not GoodFellas. But De Niro is fantastic."

Acting is a job 100% of the time. Only sometimes is it something else on top.

[Slyfeind]

Here's all you need to know about Natalie Portman as a person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpMPFGBtE7Q

(ETA: NSFW lyrics.)

[bhodi]

So, all my friends are saying this movie rocks. I'll probably see it this weekend.

You can also avoid the 3d version, apparently it was all added post production. There are a couple of scenes where the hammer's flying around and that's pretty much it.

[Slyfeind]

I just saw it and thought it was amazing. The 3D was utter crap, though. Yikes. It never let you forget it was all a bunch of fake-ass special effects.

I knew JMS had a cameo in it, but I didn't realize he actually wrote the movie too.

[Ratman_tf]

I really liked Portman in this. She's a great... I guess character actor is the term, she plays Natalie Portman.  The romance bit was believable. It wasn't some epic soul bonding garbage, she was just really into him.

[Khaldun]

1. Do NOT see this in 3d. There is absolutely zero 3d-ish stuff in it. Total waste of money.
2. It's pretty decent. I wasn't blown away by it, it's not particularly memorable, but neither is there anything actively bad about it.

[Slyfeind]

I really liked Portman in this. She's a great... I guess character actor is the term, she plays Natalie Portman.  The romance bit was believable. It wasn't some epic soul bonding garbage, she was just really into him.

Except character actors play everybody but themselves. I think the term you're looking for is "She plays herself." :P

[pxib]

Okay I haven't watched it yet but I went to the imdb page and

THIS WAS DIRECTED BY KENNETH BRANAGH?

Who greenlights Mr. Shakespeare Adaptations to direct a big summer action superhero flick? I mean, I'm pleased to hear it worked out pretty well but WHAT.

[Threash]

There wasn't a single moment in the movie when i didn't know what was going to happen next and i was still massively entertained.  Very fun, definitely worth a watch.

[Slyfeind]

Okay I haven't watched it yet but I went to the imdb page and

THIS WAS DIRECTED BY KENNETH BRANAGH?

Who greenlights Mr. Shakespeare Adaptations to direct a big summer action superhero flick? I mean, I'm pleased to hear it worked out pretty well but WHAT.

I was surprised at how well he handled such a big action story.

[Chimpy]

Saw it this afternoon while waiting for my new glasses to be made.

Liked it quite a bit. Stellan Skaarsgard is quite possibly the best actor in the world at portraying a believable professor type.

On the Branagh thing, there was a bit about him on CBS Sunday Morning last week that I caught (cause my mom was here and watching it) which talked to him. Apparently Thor was the first comic book he ever picked up when he was a kid and he read issues of it for years. Plus, all super hero movies are melodramas. Someone who has been acting in and directing both tragic and comic Shakespeare for 30 years should be able to handle your run of the mill melodramatic super hero story fairly easily.

[Khaldun]

I liked the line in A.O. Scott's review of the flick: Stellan Skaarsgard is at this point a leading candidate for the Nobel in Pretend Sciences.

[Thrawn]

Saw it today, liked it a lot.  Almost as good as Iron Man.

But to echo whats been said already, 3D is NOT needed at all for this.  I saw it in 3D because the theater didn't have 2D and it wasn't even worth the extra $2 per ticket.

[Merusk]

Totally watchable and enjoyable.  I could nitpick a few things about it as a movie but I had a good time.  The scenes between Portman and Hemsworth were totally believable and, IMO, the best parts of the movie.

I think it was jam-packed with more Marvel Universe references than any other movie to-date, too.  A few casually dropped lines got you references to Bruce Banner & (I think)Tony Stark, and there were the cameos by Hawkeye and Agent Coulson.  The guy next to me in the theater implied there were a few more cameos/ references, but I didn't catch any more than that. I'm also not a huge comic fan, though.

Heimdall was pretty damn cool. I wanted more of him and less of the fat warrior guy.

On the Branagh thing, there was a bit about him on CBS Sunday Morning last week that I caught (cause my mom was here and watching it) which talked to him. Apparently Thor was the first comic book he ever picked up when he was a kid and he read issues of it for years. Plus, all super hero movies are melodramas. Someone who has been acting in and directing both tragic and comic Shakespeare for 30 years should be able to handle your run of the mill melodramatic super hero story fairly easily.

That last bit is pretty much what I said to my wife when she expressed shock over seeing Branagh as the director.  I didn't know he'd been a big fan, kind of a neat factoid and explains why he was able to take the material seriously. (Which is a lot of what a comic movie needs to get folks to do well with it.)

[Ghambit]

The sequel needs to just be about Heimdall, seriously.  What a baddass.And mythologically, he has no equal 'cept Odin (most of the time) yes?

[Khaldun]

Other cameos/references:

That's all I spotted on one viewing.