The Q18 Report - THOR; or "It's Mjolnir Time!"

[patentdragon]

In Today's Episode... The Pandemonicum Symphony: Final Movement continues, as Darkhawk blazes a trail of fury across Mystalornan space - and maybe cracks are at last showing in The Pandemonicum...

Release Notes... TWO chapters to go...

Move Review: THOR...



Here we go, Blockbuster Season, and there couldn't be a more hard-to-beat opener than THOR. For the fans, a super-hero movie has got to hit enough of the "marks" to feel true to the source material, and for the casual viewer, you've got to have spectacle, excitement and not too much exposition, which can be really hard when you're doing what is, effectively, an "origin episode". THOR delivers. And delivers big time.

An unexpected meeting in the desert takes us to an Asgardian flashback, introducing our main characters - All-Father Odin, and sons Loki and Thor - and establishing them in swift fashion. All three have been cast splendidly, and set the mark pretty high for all that follows...

One might expect the Earth... sorry, Midgard-bound trials of Thor to be where the movie starts to drag, but far from it. There are fun moments as the god of thunder learns rather painfully and abruptly what it is to be human, but before things can slow down too much, the fun stuff gets going - our hero tries to reclaim what's his in emphatic fashion, whilst under the gaze of another hero who might might be lost to the casual viewer (it's Hawkeye! - "make your mind up", he says to Coulson, "I'm startin' t'root for this guy"), the comic hero's secret identity is referenced, then plays an important part in the story...

I could tell the whole story of the movie, and not even begin to do it justice. The vistas are incredible, the fight-scenes head-spinning, you can almost see the comic panel reimagined for the big screen, without being done stupidly like in Ang Lee's Hulk - realism is the name of the game, but when the unreal appears, it is never done cheaply, or tongue in cheek. Director Kenneth Branagh, take a bow - you grasped the nettle of the big hero, and made it work so brilliantly!

"Thor will return in The Avengers" - I. CANNOT. Wait.

And finally... Talking about The Avengers; we got definite indications of what's coming in the end-of-titles teaser - which some people, including the phone addicts (see below), walked out before and missed. Is this a Cosmic Cube I see before me...?

To be continued in Captain America: The First Avenger...



The Final Verdict... Some day, all super-hero movies will be made this way. Awesome, in almost every way. Majestic. Oh, and give The Warriors Three their own movie! 9.5/10

98 - See each of the "Avengers" cycle of movies on opening day! (Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Captain America - The First Avenger (2011), Avengers (2012) (2/4))

My only complaint? Some people will insist on fannying about with their sodding phones during the movie, and those little brightly lit screens take me out of my illusion; an illusion I have paid good money for. Next time I see it happen, I will expedite with prejudice...