What is your relationship like with Thor? Have you accepted Thor as your summer’s personal savior?
One of the comic bookiest summers in cinema history has finally stopped pussyfooting around and arrived, already, and its herald is a 3D movie by Kenneth Branagh. People in nations other than mine have already had the pleasure of seeing this movie and report back from the front that it is good. 94% good, if Rotten Tomatoes is to be believed the week before most U.S. critics have a crack at the thing. (I don’t mean to belittle non-U.S. critics; it’s just that, as luck would have it, the first early Thor review I tried to read happened to contain the phrase “when I visited the set of the movie,” and I sort of threw the Beta Ray Bill out with the bathwater. I love every movie I hung out at, too.)
I don’t know why I was surprised to hear that it was good. I can’t remember a time when Kenneth Branagh the director has let me down before. But then, Kenneth Branagh’s never made a movie about Thor.
I guess I had not initially accepted Thor as my summer’s personal savior. I’ve always had a deeply ambivalent relationship with the Odinson, and there’s no sense denying it now. Part of the reason I never really liked The Avengers as a kid was that I used to think, “’Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’? Give me a break. Doctor Druid, the Black Knight, and Thor?” Something about him always seemed deeply square in a way that not even Captain America could touch. Maybe those speech patterns of his always made me feel like a pop quiz was around the corner. Maybe he just seemed too adjacent to Fantasy, my very least favorite in all the Mystical Realms of Genre. I can’t help myself; if I feel like I’m about to hear about elves or dragons, I reflexively begin scanning the room for exits. I was born this way. What else was I to make of a character with a helm and a hammer?
If anything, pity me in my ignorance. That amazing Walt Simonson run being Omnibussed now was happening right under my nose while I was buying up back issues of Transformers.
Looking back, I don’t even really know where my impression of Thor came from. For all I know, I saw him in Secret Wars II and based years of bias on it. I do know I bought a grand total of one Thor comic as a kid, #385, because it featured a battle with the Hulk. It was called “Be Thou God or Monster,” but given that it was credited to Jim Shooter and Stan Lee and was the only book on the shelves in which the Hulk was still green, it’s clear in hindsight that it should have been called “Be Thou Patently a Fill-In Issue Out of a Drawer Somewhere.” (Back then, I didn’t know there were fill-in issues; I just knew the books came out like clockwork.) It did not make a lifelong impression.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the multiplex: I got excited about Thor. I’ve been counting the days until this movie is released, and not just because I want to see Anthony Hopkins’ hockey hair in 3D. Although I do so much.
Maybe Matt Fraction, Brian Bendis and (gulp) JMS have shown me a new side of the Mighty One in the last few years, or at least shown me once and for all that any character besides Deadpool and Superman can be entertaining in the right pair of hands. Maybe I’m just beside myself with curiosity to see what kind of world they’re going to build that both has Frost Giants and fits naturally right next to Robert Downey Jr. and Sam Rockwell’s orange hands. Maybe it’s Fear Itself spillover enthusiasm.
Or maybe this is just one of those times when, without being too self-conscious about it, I find myself waving the flag for Team Comics a little bit. Occasionally, something from our cultural niche will find itself out in front of the world at large in an impressive, non-Punisher-movie sort of way, and I find myself getting excited that my mom’s friends know what a Hellboy is even if I myself have not previously been the world’s biggest Hellboy fan. A part of me says, “More people are getting exposed to this group of things I enjoy, and maybe they’ll enjoy them too. The party is getting bigger!”
The inverse, of course, is that you find yourself aching for Jonah Hex fans even if you’re not one. Alas, love makes us vulnerable.
Am I the only person who does this? Did you still find yourself sort of hoping Ghost Rider 2 is good, against all laws of probability, economics, and possibly quantum physics? Did you ever root for a comic book movie even though you’d never bought the book?
In the case of Thor, I’m mainly looking forward to it to see how they pull it off. Adaptations like this can be tricky, and English-speaking Norse gods with rainbow bridges and world trees could be a real tightrope walk to adapt in a world where they can’t even get Catwoman right. But the cast is good, the critics seem happy, the Marvel Architects are in Their heaven and all is right with the world. Four days and counting until things get underway.
I can’t wait to see Thor. Stranger things have happened, but none come to mind.
Jim Mroczkowski thinks in a way he can’t articulate that the future of Doctor Strange scripts may hinge more on the success of the Thor franchise than you might think. They have a lot of hocus pocus in common.
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I root for every comic book movie to be good and do well, whether I’ve read the book or not, for sure.
So far, as excitement goes, I’d really only been hyped about Captain America, not because I like the character more, but mainly becuase I didn’t think the rest of this summer’s comic book movies would turn out well. The possibility of this Thor movie actually being good has got my excitement building.
Great read as always Jimski!
Until the trailers hit, I was very weary about Thor. I did not see how it could be done without seeming too silly, especially in the same ‘universe’ as the Iron Man movies. I guess I had similar views of the character, and all the magic-y fantasy stuff that comes along with that, as you.
But then the trailers hit, and they were marvellous. The Asgardian stuff is as close as we’re going to get to seeing a Kirby drawing brought to life, I think, and it seemed fun and action-packed without worrying too much about the heavy mythology.
Having now seen the film I can say that I shouldn’t have worried. Thor is exactly what I want from a summer blockbuster-type film, without seeming dumbed down and silly. Avengers or no Avengers Thor works outstandingly well by itself (take THAT Iron Man 2,) and I’m confident both hardcore Thor fans and newbies alike will get a kick out of it.
Great thoughts, Jim, and I hope I don’t raise the bar too much by saying you should be excited about seeing it. 🙂
The movie is fantastic! Good old UK – I’ve seen it twice now, both in 2D (first) and 3D IMAX (the second time)
May I suggest that you go in 2D for a better time!
Dude, I have not bee this jazzed for a comic movie since Scott Pilgrim… which, I guess, wasn’t that long ago…
It look’a real good.
I only really followed Thor when he had his EMT reboot in the 90s with Dan Jurgens / John Romita Jr. on art and his alter ego was Jake Olson. I was pretty into that run in my younger days.
I think Ghost Rider 2 is going to be awesome. Mixing Nicholas Cage with Crank? Let’s do it.
Thor: I AM THOR!
Citizen: Then why don’t you take some athprin?
I’m here all week, try the veal!
I feel this way about Green Lantern.
The early good reviews have intrigued me. The previews haven’t done much for me, (i’ve never had an interest in Thor as a character or comic) but i’m tempted to actually see this in the theatre now.
I can’t bring myself to root blindly for comic movies across the board…i mean really i have no personal or financial stake in them so it doesn’t matter to me if they bomb or go gangbusters. I like what i like, they’re just movies to me.
the 3D adds zero to what is largely a mess of a film. sadly it just doesnt work, very confused.
Nah, saw it this weekend and loved it! The 3D sucks though. Don’t support this fake 3D garbage.
I have seen Thor and it hammered me. Heh. But no, it’s awesome, funny and (surprisingly) heartwarming. So completely and utterly unique compared to other superhero movies.
I’ll save further gushing for the Special Edition Podcast.
I support the comics. I don’t support the movies and hope they start bombing so we either get movies done right or no movies at all.
Love that Thor cover though!
I don’t like I am very excited for this movie!
@Zarathos81 I love that cover because it is two giant warriors completely missing each other from six inches away. “Let’s hug it out, you– wait– just– hang on–“
But…the movies are done right for the most part. So…win.
Why do we have to pick a “Team”? I’ve seen Thor and it was good I hope the rest of the comic book films this year are as good or better.
@wulfstone No one said you couldn’t be on more than one team…damn, thats sounds filthy. But, I think Jimski makes it clear he would like ALL comics movies to do well.
I’ve had a countdown set on my homepage for over a year now, so, I couldn’t be any more excited!!
I have been anticipating, AND dreading the Thor movie for.some time now. Not that I hate Thor. I love the character. It’s that between Thor and Cap, the potential for one of those movies to suck, and therefore kill, the Avengers movie is very real. right now we have Iron Man. And like I said on my show, most people have a good feeling about that franchise. But if either of the upcoming movies craps the bed, it will cast a long shadow in that the Avengers might only be as strong as it’s weakest link in some folks eyes. Imagine now if Thor is incredibly awesome. Now even moreso will I be worried that Cap will stink it up, and piss all in my Avengers punchbowl.
I am in my mid forties, and have been dreaming about a live action Avengers film for the vast majority of those years. Now that it is in reach, I am terrified something is going to fuck it all up before it’s even released. Yes. I know I have issues, but the culmination of a lifelong dream doesnt come around but once in a lifetime, and I am sitting on the edge of my seat hoping all goes well.
By the way, re: countdowns… Avengers, 1 year from tomorrow.
@Unoob Nothing’s going to kill the Avengers movie, they’ve already started making it.
Thor is great. Best Marvel film yet.
I live in Spain and I saw the film on Saturday morning. I really enjoyed it. I left the cinema with a lovely warm feeling.
While I’m totally pumped for the movie and I’m pretty sure I’m going to enjoy it, a very small, insignificant part of me wants it to be mediocre, just so I can walk out of the theatre and bellow — “I SAY THEE meh.”
@conor
I meant more of a PR failure before it even premiers. I mean imagine if either the Thor or Cap movies receive reviews of Ishtar-ian proportions. Then I can see the general movie going public holding their noses before even seeing the Avengers, or even worse, not go to see it at all. This is the big one. It was either going to be Avengers or JLA, and depending on success or failure, you just know it will determine the landscape of Superhero movies (at least Team ones), for the next 12 to 15 years. A lots riding on the execution of this series of movies, and I really hope they get it right.