Thor Movie

[GogglesPizanno]

Eh... All it really does it make me want to watch an Agent Coulson of Shield movie.
His scene at the end was the best part.

[BentonGrey]

Awesome!  I would be happy to watch a movie set entirely in Asgard, a-la the old "Tales of Asgard" stories of Lee and Kirby.  The movie itself looks good.  I'm a little wary of how well they'll handle the Asgardians coming to Earth thing, but I have hope!

[thanoson]

Squeee!!!!

[BlueBard]

It looks visually interesting, but story seems a little flat.  I think I will wait for it to come out on Netflicks.

I had the opposite reaction.  I was mostly disinterested in watching a Thor movie and probably would have waited for it to come out on Netflix if I watched it at all.  After seeing the trailer, I'm thinking it sounds like a pretty good movie.  It doesn't seem to exactly follow either the classic or the Ultimate origin of Thor, but from what I see it looks like a very good adaptation of the characters for film.

I also find myself wondering

Spoiler

how Thor goes from being a captive of SHIELD interrogated by Coulson to a member of the Avengers.

[Reepicheep]

My interest, for the first time ever, is now perked.

Blue Bard

Spoiler

Samuel L Jackson would be the obvious answer.

[Mr. Hamrick]

Spoiler

how Thor goes from being a captive of SHIELD interrogated by Coulson to a member of the Avengers.

Spoiler

I wager that the conversation between Thor and Coulson takes place some around the middle to 2/3 point of the movie.  The same way that the bit at the end of Iron Man 2 takes place at what is probably the 1/3 point of the movie.  If you were sitting the film up chronologically at least.

[Tawodi Osdi]

I admit that Thor has never been high on my list of favorite characters.  I never disliked him, but I never really like him either; so, my initial disinterest is probably fueling my current disinterest.

[Courtnall6]

Thor is easly in my top 3 favorite comic characters. My expectations were low when I heard the movie was announced and the early screen pics didn't help. The trailer looks good and has definitely got my hopes up.

As a Thor geek...I really hope he's got a "Nay! I say thee nay!" in there somewhere.

[ow_tiobe_sb]

Spoiler

how Thor goes from being a captive of SHIELD interrogated by Coulson to a member of the Avengers.

Spoiler

I wager that the conversation between Thor and Coulson takes place some around the middle to 2/3 point of the movie.  The same way that the bit at the end of Iron Man 2 takes place at what is probably the 1/3 point of the movie.  If you were sitting the film up chronologically at least.

Spoiler

My guess is that that dialogue (that is, if Thor ever decides to reply) takes place after Thor attempts to wield and wrest Mjolnir from the S.H.I.E.L.D.-secured impact site (presumably, the hammer falls to Midgard as well, as indicated by the final scenes of Iron Man 2) and fails.  Of course, it appears that Thor will not be in a position to attempt to reclaim the hammer until he has won Jane's trust--and that won't happen without sufficient character and relationship development between the two.  Consequently, I would agree with Mr. Hamrick's estimate.

I am excited that the writers (before final editing, mind you) seem willing to make more use of Agent Coulson.  Clark Gregg has owned that role since Iron Man and has featured in some wonderfully understated (as opposed to Robert Downey, Jr./Tony Stark-overstated) comic moments in the two Iron Man films. 

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Whirled Braker

[captmorgan72]

Something I just noticed. Where is Baldur?

[steamteck]

Well, I'm really pumped up. I'm really excited about this film. Huge Thor geek here though .

[herodad1]

Idris Elba as Heimdall? dont see it at all. 

[Courtnall6]

Idris Elba as Heimdall? dont see it at all. 

Typical Hollywood casting...throwing common sense right out the window.

[steamteck]

Idris Elba as Heimdall? dont see it at all. 

Typical Hollywood casting...throwing common sense right out the window.

Yep, I have liittle patience with  that sort of "creative casting"

[Panther_Gunn]

The odds are that no one (of seeming importance) in Hollywood will even bat an eye at this casting, thinking it will just help fill seats, and maybe keep certain groups from complaining.  And yet, imagine the uproar and backlash if they did a movie version of The Tomb Of Dracula or Morbius, and they cast Jet Li in the role of Blade.  I would have no real issues if they had cast him in the role of Malekith the Accursed.  I might even buy it if they do a Ray Park with him.....using make-up (hopefully less so) and costume (preferably) to disguise what he actually looks like.  But I give that slim odds of happening.

Why does being "politically correct" so often fly in the face of being factually or historically correct?



p.s.:  Elba is also cast in an as-yet unnamed role for a Ghost Rider sequel.....with Nick Cage.   

[tommyboy]

Well that explains the black Heimdall in Thor the mighty avenger comic (or whatever its called).
Elba is a good, maybe great, actor.
Nobody else playing a norse god actually is a norse god, so today, I have few problems with it.
Another day it may have bugged me a little, but given that I like the actor, it worries me less.

[herodad1]

i guess jet li being the action star he is would have made a better captain america that chris evans since chris is canadian? or maybe in the next shaft movie they could get bruce willis. he's really cool. i'm not a racial biggot by no means. ive got GOOD friends of all makes-n-models but, the next time hollywood makes a movie about say the zulu nation, it wont offend me if i dont see a couple white guys in the tribe. 

[Talavar]

Yeah, jeez - what is the Asgardian community going to say?  This is so racially insensitive to them. 

[hoss20]

   Is it really that big a deal, considering that they already cast a Japanese actor (Tadanobu Asano) to play Hogun? That irked me as much as this casting did and I'm surprised no one made mention of it. I think it's more that Elba and Asano are hot right now (which I actually think makes the casting decisions worse), rather than a racial sensitivity issue.

[JeyNyce]

Idris Elba as Heimdall? dont see it at all. 

I didn't much of the Thor comics, so this wouldn't bother me.  Do you really think is going to bother fans of the comics?  I think not.

[captmorgan72]

i guess jet li being the action star he is would have made a better captain america that chris evans since chris is canadian? or maybe in the next shaft movie they could get bruce willis. he's really cool. i'm not a racial biggot by no means. ive got GOOD friends of all makes-n-models but, the next time hollywood makes a movie about say the zulu nation, it wont offend me if i dont see a couple white guys in the tribe. 

Totally agree with herodad on this one. It's hard to say these things and not come off sounding a bit racist these days though. The irony of this is that in the Edda, Heimdall is called the "white god".

[BWPS]

It's hard not to sound racist when saying an actor shouldn't have a job in a movie because of his or her race because it's so racist. By definition. I know no one is trying to be racist, and just nitpicking about comic book accuracy.
"Certain groups" don't complain when their "members" don't appear in every movie. In fact some of these "groups" don't even have regular meetings at all, and certainly not where they boycott films which don't have any characters who are in their group. In fact some groups are so broad and far-reaching that they don't actually have representatives with the authority to complain on behalf of those groups. Some movies are still able to get many of "certain groups'" members to see the movies anyway and they become the highest grossing films of all time.

[JeyNyce]

Didn't we have this conversation when Michael Clark Duncan was chosen to play Kingpin in the DareDevil movie?

[BlueBard]

Not that it really matters, since the Norse Gods are myth and fiction anyhow, but you have to admit the casting for Heimdall does seem odd.

Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury was also an odd choice, considering Fury's origins in WWII, but it works because he's cool.  Maybe this will work out the same way.

[steamteck]

Didn't we have this conversation when Michael Clark Duncan was chosen to play Kingpin in the DareDevil movie?

It actually quite different. Duncan as the Kinpin works fine for me  because although he's a white guy in the comics, there is nothing in his background that says he has to be. Heimdal is a Norse god however so I consider that a little different.  No one would ever consider casting the Black Panther as an Asian or white guy for example.

I do also think that characters that the normals know what race etc they are should  probably reamin the same race just to not break the illusion. Everyone knows what Superman looks like.

[Uncle Yuan]

Didn't we have this conversation when Michael Clark Duncan was chosen to play Kingpin in the DareDevil movie?

It actually quite different. Duncan as the Kinpin works fine for me  because although he's a white guy in the comics, there is nothing in his background that says he has to be. Heimdal is a Norse god however so I consider that a little different.  No one would ever consider casting the Black Panther as an Asian or white guy for example.

I do also think that characters that the normals know what race etc they are should  probably reamin the same race just to not break the illusion. Everyone knows what Superman looks like.

Good point.  And while we've come a long way in "color blind" casting (loved Denzel Washington in Much Ado About Nothing), but until we can cast "Once Upon a Time in China" or "Roots" regardless of ethnicity we haven't truly hit it.

[herodad1]

the kingpin and nick fury castings didnt faze me that much. to me it could easily work with those characters but a norse god?  that is different. hope my opinion on this hasnt stirred a big stink! 

[Podmark]

Well Sam Jackson was cast as Fury because of the Ultimates comics which used his exact likeness for their version of the character. So that was straight out of the comics, just not the original ones.

[BlueBard]

Well Sam Jackson was cast as Fury because of the Ultimates comics which used his exact likeness for their version of the character. So that was straight out of the comics, just not the original ones.

I know, but they did it in Ultimates because he looked frickin cool as a black man with an eyepatch.

Can a black man look cool in an Asgardian helmet?  The answer is, nobody looks cool in an Asgardian helmet.  So that's a great ethnic equalizer right there. 

Fact is, I might consider it odd if I really thought about it but I'm really not going to see Thor the movie and start analyzing it that deeply.  Unless the movie calls attention to it in some way, I will probably do what the mainstream audience will do... let it pass right on by without affecting my opinion of the movie in the least.

[BlueBard]

No one would ever consider casting the Black Panther as an Asian or white guy for example.

I do also think that characters that the normals know what race etc they are should  probably reamin the same race just to not break the illusion. Everyone knows what Superman looks like.

Agreed.

Can you imagine the uproar if they ever did cast the Black Panther as a white guy?

I'd feel the same way about an attempt to 'africanize' Superman... changing decades of continuity just to pander to one ethic group would be incredibly racist and inappropriate.  I might feel the same way about Heimdall if I were of Scandinavian descent... but I'm not.