Trailer Tuesday: Thor

-


Happy Thor week!

The highly anticipated Marvel comic adaptation releases this Friday (29 April) in both 2D and 3D in South Africa. The film hits North American cinemas next week, on 6 May.


What's the big deal, you ask? Isn't Thor just another superhero film? Well, actually it isn't. There are several good reasons to be excited about Thor, apart from the ones I've already mentioned on this blog.

Thor is the first big superhero movie of the year, and like all of the superhero biggies of 2011 it's out to differentiate itself from the ton of comic adaptations released over the past decade. So while Green Lantern has loads of extra-terrestrial flavour, and Captain America: The First Avenger and X-Men: First Class have dumped present day settings in favour of the 1940s and 60s respectively, Thor elevates superheroes to the level of gods. Norse gods.

In fact, Thor is a nifty little inversion of the usual superhero origin tale. Unlike most cape-and-spandex stories where a normal, highly fallible person is gifted with god-like abilities, Thor - played by soon-to-be massive heartthrob Chris Hemsworth - actually IS a god, who is stripped of his powers and cast down to Earth from Asgard by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Life among pitiful mortals certainly won't be easy for Thor, who is dismissed as a madman for claiming to be a deity. At least skeptical scientist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is there for him. Or perhaps just his hot body.


Thor is a surprisingly pedigreed production, with Kenneth Branagh an astute choice for the film's director, given his Shakespearean background. After all, Thor is all about theatrical archetypes, high drama and family feuds at an epic level, particularly in regards to Thor's rivalry with adopted brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) over Odin's love, and throne.

Out of interest, Thor is one of the characters (alongside the Hulk, Iron Man, and Captain America) in next year's all-star superhero team-up movie The Avengers. As a result, Samuel L. Jackson appears in Thor as spy agency director Nick Fury, while Jeremy Renner pops up briefly as criminal turned good guy archer Hawkeye. So there's something extra for the fanboys to look out for.

Best of all, early word on Thor is that it's highly entertaining and solid all around. I'll certainly be in the cinema on opening night for this one. By Odin's beard! Or eyepatch.

Comments

MJenks said…
At first, I wasn't too keen on this.

But, now I want to go see it.

And my wife wants to go see it, too. So, I would erase that "soon-to-be" part ahead of the "heartthrob".
3:11 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is the rebooted Lara Croft gay? Evidence for and against...

-
Image
As some of you know, I’ve been fangirling hard over the new Tomb Raider , the first entry in the video game series since 2008, and ostensibly a reboot for the entire franchise . Taking the form of an origin story, Tomb Raider 2013 depicts the events that transformed a beautiful, if bookish, archaeology graduate into a pistol-packing adventurer with a devil-may-care attitude. We meet Lara Croft as a pretty, fairly ordinary 21 year old, brooding over her work notes, listening to her mp3 player and very much confined to the shadow of her male mentors. By the end of the game, however, she’s taken charge – she’s had to! – and, battered, bruised and bloody, she’s both a survivor and hero, right down to rescuing the princess and carrying her away in her arms. Yeah, this is probably the best point to mention that there will be some Tomb Raider 2013 spoilers in this post, so read ahead with caution. Anyway, I loved the game. Technically it’s near faultless, it looks beautiful, the ov
Read more

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Queer Icon (Part 4)

-
Image
Part 4: The mystery of Lara Croft’s sexuality “Now what’s a man gotta do to get that kind of attention from ya?” – Larson Conway (Tomb Raider, 1996) Despite being an icon for many queer pop culture consumers, Lara Croft’s own sexual orientation remains ambiguous. Outside of the Top Cow comics and live-action films – where Lara is blatantly heterosexual, with a fondness for slightly scruffy bad boys (who keep betraying and hurting her) – the character comes across as primarily asexual. Kurtis Trent is the only male figure who even comes close to being a love interest in the game series. Lara's apparent sexual disinterest is despite the adventurer appearing very sexually attractive herself; a figure of desire with bee-stung lips, voluptuous breasts, toned stomach and impossibly long, athlete’s legs. Yet Lara is never dominated by sexual yearnings or romantic affections. She is very much in control of herself at all times. It’s worth noting, however, that over time th
Read more

Ladies I Love: Part 2 - Rhona Mitra

-
Image
Following on from the first post in this series , you may realise that I have a very definite type. Anyway, today we profile model-turned-actress Rhona Mitra . This 36 year old Briton is of English, Irish and Indian descent. You'll have seen her pop up on the big and small screen multiple over the past decade and a half, although Mitra's claim to fame is that she was the second ever model (some say first if you rule out "unofficial"  Nathalie Cook ) to play iconic video game character Lara Croft . From 1997-1998, Mitra could be found in PR material, as well as at trade shows, events and conventions as a flesh-and-blood embodiment of Tomb Raider 's kick-ass archeologist lead. There have been many official Lara Croft models over the years , but as far as I'm concerned Mitra remains the best. In my mind, of all of them, she most closely resembles the video game character in terms of facial features. Plus she comes from money and had a rebellious boarding
Read more