This post is nothing but atomic spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.
Tag: thor
The first thing you need to know about this movie is that it’s fucking awesome.
I saw it twice this weekend. I’ll be seeing it more times before it leaves the theater. And after several days to collect my thoughts so I can write something more coherent than a high-pitched squeal of delight, I’ve calmed down to the level of OH MY GOD COLORS AND FUNNY AND LOKI AND VALKYRIE AND SO MANY JOKES PLEASE TAIKA WAITITI TAKE MY SOUL IT’S YOURS.
If you’re not familiar with Taika Waititi’s work, it’s time to get right with the world. A great place to start is with What We Do in the Shadows, which is a mockumentary about vampires living in New Zealand–and bonus swearwolves. Hunt for the Wilderpeople is also freaking amazing and easy to find. I first encountered his work in Flight of the Conchords, and was hooked. His sense of humor (heavy on the irony and diminution) and aesthetic sensibility are both right up my alley, so I’d already just about lost my mind when I found out he would be directing Thor: Ragnarok. Finally, I thought, if someone was going to get Loki right as a character, it would be him.
Well, I was right. And so much more. SO MUCH MORE.
The non-spoiler plot summary for Thor: Ragnarok is that Thor’s been having a lot of premonitions about the end of Asgard, so he’s doing his best to stop it. Unfortunately for him, Hela shows up with the intent to ruin everyone’s day and rule Asgard. Thor (and Loki) gets diverted to the colorful garbage-land of Sakaar, ruled by Jeff Goldlum being fabulously Jeff Goldblum, where he meets Valkyrie and gets forced into fighting as a gladiator. It’s up to Thor to put together a team to stop Hela and get them all back to Asgard before it’s too late.
The big thing that doesn’t really show up in the summary is how fucking hilarious this movie is. It just doesn’t stop the entire time, even in the action sequences. And the humor cleverly disguises–and also sharpens–some incredibly fucked up things that the film examines. And between jokes, there are quiet character moments that have more impact because they occur in the ten seconds you aren’t laughing–or you are laughing and then you realize just how important this is to that character and it’s like a punch to the sternum. I’d also recommend this piece about the Maori spin on Waititi’s brand of humor as seen in the movie, though it could be considered spoilery depending on how sensitive you are about that stuff.
It’s a gorgeous, and immensely colorful film. Between that and the humor, it feels like an unsubtle rebuke and mockery of the DCEU’s relentless, desaturated grimness. Like look, here’s an entirely unserious superhero movie that’s a hell of a lot of fun. The MCU movies have often played with genre, and this is definitely their take on the comedy–which makes it a really nice other half to the tragedy that Kenneth Branagh filmed into Thor 1. I also really love the way it was filmed… you get a lot of sweeping, colorful, epic-feeling vistas (particularly on Asgard), contrasted with a lot of close shots that give the important conversations (like when Valkyrie makes some big decisions) feel incredibly intimate.
Oh, and while we’re talking visuals, I have to mention the amazing moments of 1980s pulpy scifi/fantasy movie nostalgia. We already knew we were in for a particular sensibility when we saw the title text for the film, but Waititi keeps it going. Large portions of the score are done on synth and feel like a direct nod back to all the films that made me love fantasy as a child. And the setup of some of the sequences and shots feels like an ode to 80s and early 90s metal band album covers–particularly the sequence with the Valkyries. It’s got nostalgia, but not in a way that excludes those who won’t get that joke–there are plenty of other nods and winks.
I also want to mention that this film has more women (and women of color, at that!) and men of color than any of the other MCU films so far by a long shot. The fact that it’s got a female villain (Hela, played by Cate Blanchett having way too much fun) who doesn’t get shuffled off to the side so she only fights the female hero is immensely fucking cool too, by the way. But it’s even little things like when you look at crowd scenes, particularly on Asgard, there are a significant number of non-white faces you can pick out at all times. This stuff matters.
If you need a happy thing, I think this will provide.
(And now if you’ll forgive me, I need to go on a bit about some SPOILERY stuff, so I’m putting that below the cut.)
I know, there has not been bloggening in forever. July has been and will continue to be totally crazypants as far as scheduling goes. But here, I have some stuff for you!
Storifies:
During my one long break at DetCon1, I went to the Detroit Institute of the Arts. I only had a bit over three hours there, which wasn’t nearly enough, but it made a profound impression on me.
John C Wright (misogynist, unconscious self-parody, conservative with desperate fantasies of being persecuted rather than simply irrelevant, and one of my favorite chew-toys) has put on his whineypants mightily (lo, verily he hath) because the evil liberal conspiracy that wants to set fire to every velvet Jesus ever painted forced Marvel to make Thor a woman. Or something. Thus doing his small part to answer the question we were all asking ourselves since the announcements about Thor and Captain America: Are comics fans more racist or misogynist? Anyway, I made fun of him on Twitter because I couldn’t be arsed to write a full blog post. And really. After a while all you have to say is would you get a load of this fuckin’ guy?
Podcasts:
Comes the Huntsman is now a Podcast! Go listen! I just did, and I’m really pleased with it. And, recall that Comes the Huntsman was a gift story. Therefore.
I was on Skiffy and Fanty again, to talk about BBC’s Sherlock, season 1. As you might already suspect, I expressed a lot of unpopular opinions.
Other stuff:
I will be at ArmadilloCon this weekend! Here’s my schedule! If you’re there, please say hello!
DetCon1 was lovely. Major thanks to everyone who said hello to me and came to my panels. And a big extra thanks to everyone who came to the reading I shared with Leah Bobet! And then managed to survive Leah and I playing feels chicken with each other with our readings. You’re all super awesome!
I want you all to start thinking about this now, in readerland. How much would it be worth to you, to make me watch the Fifty Shades of Grey movie? And put your thinking caps on for worthy charities that could benefit from that level of agony.
Final thought:
Free fajitas are the best fajitas.
Look, I’m just going to talk to myself about superhero movies for a minute, so don’t you mind one bit. Move along, nothing to see here.
I mean the Thor franchise collectively, since I’d be a massive liar if I claimed I liked Thor the character better than his utterly cracked little brother. But I’ve been thinking and thinking about this, since I was so super excited about Thor: The Dark World coming out last year, and now that The Winter Soldier is upon us I’m kind of…meh. Like I’m going to go see it and enjoy the hell out of it I’m sure, but for me it’s in the category of “when I have time” as opposed GIVE IT TO ME NOW, FUCKERS.
I was just re-reading my complaints about Man of Steel, and in particular the ridiculous way the movie tried to make freaking Superman all dark and angsty, and I realized that it’s. That’s why I love Thor and I really like Iron Man. I even liked the first Captain America way more than I thought I would. With all of those movies, no matter how grim things are temporarily, there’s a very definite angst limit before going back to banter and fun and just getting on with the ridiculous life of a superhero.
Tony Stark is a messed up guy with some issues, but he’s also made of 100% supercharged sass and he never really quits. He’s not a dark character in any sense of the word. Then Thor is like the anti-dark character. He doesn’t have a tragic past. He’s not self-hating. He doesn’t spend all of his time isolating himself or trying to destroy the relationships he has to remind us that he’s fucked up. He is, in fact, shockingly un-fucked-up when you compare him to most other superheroes. The closest he gets to angst is a couple minutes of staring off into the distance while looking super pretty, plainly wishing he could go visit his girlfriend and that his little brother would just stop being such a douche already. And that’s given him a pretty refreshing arc for his character development, because (in my opinion) it’s mostly been about him coming to terms with the fact that the world isn’t a black and white place and learning to deal with it.
And I’m not saying there’s necessarily anything wrong with the traumatic backstory trope but damn, it’s so nice to have a break from it.
Really, the only character that goes for the angsty narrative at all in the entire Thor franchise is Loki, and like >70% of it is his inner bullshit I’m-totally-the-victim-here monolog that he then covers over by being a sassy little dickbag. All the rest of the characters are solidly in the laughing while poking things with a sword category, and I’m totally behind that when it comes to my escapist genre movies.
Which brings us to The Winter Soldier, which I’m sure I will enjoy, because yay Black Widow, and I’ve seen enough clips to know that there is going to be plenty of sass to go around. But Steve is… I wouldn’t in a million years accuse Steve of being a dark character, but he’s generally quite serious, which isn’t really my cup of superheroic tea. Considering the plot for this movie, I’m really wondering just what kind of BAWWWW levels it’ll hit. Guess I’ll find out this weekend, since the current plan is pizza and The Winter Soldier at the Alamo as a reward for unpacking at the new apartment.
Anyway, this is also all part of the reason why I’m a devoted Marvel cinematic universe fan, and I’ve basically given up on DC. Chris Nolan managed to put enough meat in the Dark Knight trilogy that slogging through the grimdark was a rewarding experience, but it probably says a lot that I’ve yet to feel the need to rewatch the third movie, and I can count the number of rewatches of the first two on the fingers of one hand. And then you get to Man of Steel and it’s like reaching for that level of sheer broodiness with absolutely none of the substance and I’m just done.
I’ll just be over here, enthusing about the coming of the RACCOON WITH A MACHINE GUN.
I had about three seconds of excitement yesterday when Marvel dropped the new Thor: The Dark World poster on Twitter. I’m so excited about that movie, I can barely stand it. And I really loved most of the posters there were for the original Thor. So… yay! And here it was!
Well. That’s sure a thing. I don’t like the composition (she says as if she has more artistic ability than the average potato).It’s really… busy. Unlike the posters for the first movie. But more than that… wow. It feels really familiar. Reeeeeeeally familiar.
…wow. Yeah. But no, that wasn’t what I was thinking about. We have to go back further. Much further. Like maybe…
A bit like this, perhaps. Except while they put Leia in the stupid-ass bikini, at least she’s not clinging to anyone. But of course, Star Wars really owes its artistic allegiance to far pulpier roots…
Just as an example. That’s art from a release called UFO from the 70s. Though then we need to add a little side of this just for full replication:
And there you go.
Why the hell are we still doing pulp movie clingy woman and manly men posters in the year 2013? There is just so much about the poster that I really, really don’t like. About both the TDW and IM3 posters, really. I’m not a big fan of women with their necks broken, to start with. But the position is so classic clingy damsel in distress oh let me lay my hands on your manly manly chest so you can save me. I loathe it. Particularly because in IM3, Pepper was pretty fucking awesome. She saved Tony’s ass twice. She was not the damsel in distress.
That gives me hope that maybe the TDW poster is a big troll just like the IM3 poster kind of was. (Or maybe we’ll get an awesome joke poster for Captain America 2, like this idea.) But it just upsets me on a basic level to see another awesome female character turned into the visual clingy appendage of the guy. I actually like Jane as a character. She kind of fell by the wayside when I first watched Thor because I was too busy losing my shit over the complexities of Loki. But in subsequent viewings, I’ve come to really like Jane.
In a super hero movie, it’s nice to have some normal human characters around who aren’t just living furniture. That they’re regular people means yes, they occasionally need their bacon saved by the super hero, because that’s what super heroes do. But both Pepper and Jane are eminently competent women, and they solve some great plot problems by being excellent at what they do. While I didn’t really buy the Thor/Jane romance in Thor, I loved that Jane was the one who decided to kiss him. I loved that she was impulsive and smart and very much had a life and a being outside of the whole romance angle.
The one thing that I’m still mad at Thor for was what I felt was the lazy writing. We need some redemption–quick, have him instantly fall in love with someone and that will make him a better person because boobies are magic! It was cheap, formulaic, and trite. I’ll still be seeing the new movie who knows how many fucking times because Loki. And Sif. And Loki. And Frigga in armor. And Loki. But I’d love to not give myself a headache from rolling my eyes through the rest of the movie. At this point I’m already assuming that Jane will get kidnapped by Malekith and Thor has to almost die again to save her life because obviously Malekith blowing shit up across the Nine Realms isn’t sufficient motivation for the man to be self-sacrificing. Barf. (I’d love to be wrong, by the way.)
I’m sick of shit like that. I’m so sick of it. It’s ultimately disrespectful (if that’s the right word) of two really awesome characters. It reduces Jane to just being an object to motivate Thor, and it reduces Thor to someone who can only stir himself to do great and noble things and grow as a person if his dick warmer is in danger.
Really. Do better.