It's probably not a bad idea to slap a spoiler tag on there anyway, just for anyone who hasn't been keeping up to date with online news.
It's probably not a bad idea to slap a spoiler tag on there anyway, just for anyone who hasn't been keeping up to date with online news.
To be fair, it was news to me. It can't hurt to play it safe.
I had some Amazon gift card money from my birthday, so I went ahead and snagged it. It's by Brian Tyler, who also did Iron Man 3 (which I also bought). Both make for great driving music - high-intensity, percussive, bombastic cinematic adrenalin. However, the Thor soundtrack has much more emotional range, and I like it better overall. In addition to the cue you mentioned in spoilers, which is sublime, there's a very nicely menacing adagio motif for Malekith, a few augustly contemplative passages that remind me of the score of the original Thor (similar chord patterns, but still distinct), and of course that rollicking main theme. Tyler seems to be a very nice fit for Marvel along with Alan Silvestri.Originally Posted by Droo
I have only one complaint, and it's that they totally gibbed Malekith to pander to Loki's swooning female fanbase. His role could've been so much less, and Christopher Eccleston's so much more, but nope, gotta bring the crowd in with Loki. He's worse than damn Wolverine was in the 90s. Otherwise, very strong movie.
Finally saw it today, and I really, really enjoyed it. I thought it was better than the first movie, which overall I thought was entertaining but fairly average. This sequel expanded the story and effectively got deeper into some of the emotional aspects of the characters. It all led up to a great climax with the battle at Greenwich, which was ingenious, funny, and downright thrilling. My only real complaint about the movie is that I still feel basically no chemistry between Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman.
As one of those dreaded Loki fangirls, I was quite tickled with what we got, although I do agree that it would have been nice to see more of Malekith.
And the Captain America cameo got a HUGE reaction with the crowd I was with today.
Went yesterday, joining Droo on his second viewing. I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Loki's "Ta-da!" was my best line and had me in stitches for a few minutes. I agree mostly with what's already been said. I was gutted at how they used Eccleston so poorly - anybody could have played the role in my opinion. And is it just me or did Malekith look a helluva lot like an Engineer from Prometheus!?
Something that's been bugging me about Thor as I rewatch the movie is the Thor/Jane thing: not because of chemistry, acting, comics lore, or mythology... but just because of what it says about Thor as a person/character. Not really spoilers... just a ramble-rant.
[The relationship between Thor and Jane is supposed to come off like a Disney movie. Thor is this Prince Charming character, who swoops in and saves the day, falls in love, and they live happily ever after. It's a twee, fairytale perspective on romance... but that's the sort of thing that you're supposed to expect from a movie like Thor, right?
Problem is, if you think about it a little more, it's actually pretty messed up. By the end of the first movie, Thor and Jane have known each other for maybe two or three days. He only has a handful of opportunities to actually have a proper conversation during which he can get to know her (the diner, the car ride, on the roof, and cooking breakfast), and yet he is apparently so taken with her based on that relatively superficial encounter that breaking the Bifrost in the first movie is apparently some devastating choice that he has to make, and he then spends the next several years until the second movie pining after her.
It gets worse, when you bear in mind what Odin points out: she's a mortal; she'll be dead in the blink of an eye from his perspective. Jane can fully commit to a fairytale happily ever after, but Thor can't do that. Worse, Thor has spent a thousand years or so living with the mindset that he is an incredibly long-lived being, who has grown up learning to think that humans are "all so petty, and tiny", and are weak and in need of Asgard's perspective. Also, his only exposure to proper romance and love is Odin and Frigga, who have the kind of eternal relationship that he and Jane can't possibly have. He falls in love with someone who he has been taught by his society to perceive as inferior and fleeting: and over the course of the first movie, Jane doesn't really get the opportunity to prove to him that she isn't, either. She's smart for a human, but she does nothing to make Thor think of her as anything but a generic damsel in distress. It's like Superman and Lois Lane, only it's worse because Thor wasn't raised to think of himself as human.
Thor does on the other hand know Sif, who he has basically known his entire life. Sif is much more his equal. She has the same lifespan, she speaks to him like a peer rather than like someone who is in awe of him, and she's proven to him that she's plenty good in a fight: Thor doesn't need to "protect" her, nor does he ever try to. Unlike Jane, with whom he has a pretty archaic misogynist dynamic, his relationship with Sif is much more balanced. Sif is also quite clearly attracted to him, and they seem like a pretty good match even without mythology and comic book lore to suggest as much. Thor is definitely aware of this: even if he wasn't previously, his dad pretty much spells it out for him. Yet, when Sif tries to ask him out for a drink, Thor doesn't bother letting her down gently, with the kind of regard for her feelings that you'd expect someone to have for a close friend; he shrugs it off with all the subtlety of a hammer blow to the heart. Apparently, a thousand years of friendship and kinship doesn't measure up to that weekend in New Mexico.
This bugs me, probably more than it should. It would be fantastic if we could have an action movie like this which didn't feel it needed a romantic subplot; but if the Thor franchise does have to have that romance element it makes me uncomfortable that they picked the more chauvinist of the two.
What makes it worse is that in the comics and cartoons, that dynamic isn't there at all. In those depictions, Jane Foster is a paramedic, and the reason that Thor is attracted to her is because despite the fact that she's a mortal with no powers, she constantly rushes into danger, putting her life at risk in order to save other people because that is her job and what she's decided to do with her life. In that scenario, Jane Foster is "more impressive" from his perspective: Jane putting her life on the line is more significant than Sif doing so, because Jane isn't a super-strong nigh-immortal warrior badass. The Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon from a few years ago, aimed at children rather than the adult target audience of Thor, managed to portray a version of the Jane-Thor relationship in tiny subplot snippets that had more maturity and realism than the multi-million blockbuster did, which is... kinda disappointing.
I really like Thor, but it bothers me that he's such a jerk to his lady-friends.]
It's like that, and that's the way it is.
Sometimes guys are idiots because of puppy love.
oh what a tangled web I weave
It's not so much Thor being an "idiot" that bugs me, it's that his entire relationship with Jane is based around the idea of her being his "lesser". Even her intelligence, which is well above average for a human, is more endearing than impressive on an Asgardian scale. The scene in Thor 2 [where she knows what the medical scanner does] is a "don't underestimate me because I'm human" sort of thing... but all of her intelligence and knowledge is stuff that Thor says was explained to him as a child.
They took away the part of Jane that to my mind Thor was/should be attracted to - her selfless heroism - and it kinda makes Thor seem like a bit of a jerk. It irks me, because it feels like an oversight on the part of the writers that ends up reflecting badly on a character who is otherwise a pretty solid role model.
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