Od's Blood! Hath ILE no thread for anticipation of Kenneth Branagh's THOR? Verily?

Morbidly looking forward to this, but I did go to see Norton's Hulk movie so clearly I have no judgement.

Looks a little cheap though.

Some cool little set-ups for The Avengers too.

This is pretty much the main reason I want to see this.

Won't spoil it but there's a sweet cameo. It's about a million times more fun than Norton's Hulk. There's a fair bit of Hercules In New York style humour but i went with it. Didn't stick around for the post-credit bit but i'm sure it'll be on youtube in a couple of days.

OK sold. Is Brian Blessed still alive? He should have been in this.

Sorry Ned, can't remember if that's a specific line but tell away.

Here's what I've heard what a typical day was kinda like on the shooting -- this story is friend-of-a-friend stuff but the source is v. trustworthy, so. Heard about this over a year ago:

Apparently Branagh was being the obsessive hyperperfectionist are-you-out-of-your-mind director making sure that everyone was delivering a great ACTING! performance, resulting in endless takes and other amusements. Rumor was that this was well beyond trying to 'get it right' and is instead mostly all a series of problems that Branagh had dreamed up and felt he needs to solve. When this story I linked back last April ran I immediately guessed it was due to damage control because of this.

The illustrative example I heard specifics about was this -- so there was a scene filmed which was supposed to be Hopkins saying to Russo, in re: Thor's being old enough or through his training enough or whatever, the line "Is he ready?"

As might be guessed Hopkins, however batshit he is himself (thus), rather knows how to deliver a basic three word line like that and make it work. Everyone else agreed. Branagh, not so much -- so apparently after each take Branagh was going up to Hopkins and saying things like "It needs to be a question, it doesn't FEEL like a question yet, a QUESTION is being asked!" For quite a few takes.

Quite why Hopkins didn't clock the guy I do not know.

Ha, i genuinely don't remember the line so he must never have delivered it to Ken's satisfaction.

can't imagine how this could be anything more than terrible

otoh they did include the Destroyer, which is kinda cool

Can't wait for all the "Is he ready?" outtakes on the DVD.

Audience i saw it with seemed to enjoy it as well fwiw.

Won't spoil it but there's a sweet cameo. It's about a million times more fun than Norton's Hulk.

Stan Lee as Sif's grandmother?

Stan Lee gets a safe dropped on him?

Stan Lee as Don Blake's walking stick?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/movies/kenneth-branaghs-thor-film-of-marvel-comic-hero.html

Mr. Hemsworth, a former soap-opera star who studied Mr. Branagh’s film of “Much Ado About Nothing” for a high school production, said he was intimidated at first to meet his “Thor” director. Instead he said he found an animated and egoless filmmaker who suggested that he prepare for the film by reading Hesse’s “Siddhartha.”

Lot of references to Olivier in this piece

Mr. Hopkins said that, as an actor, “I phone it in a lot as I’m getting older,” but seeing the aura of his old mentor in Mr. Branagh stirred him to invest himself more fully in “Thor.”

so, did Branagh himself write this piece or

Mr. Hemsworth, a former soap-opera star who studied Mr. Branagh’s film of “Much Ado About Nothing” for a high school production

"I knew Keanu would be my role model from then on."

His “Thor” director...an animated and egoless filmmaker who suggested that he prepare for the film by reading Hesse’s “Siddhartha.”

His “Thor” director...an animated and egoless filmmaker who suggested that he prepare for the film by reading Hesse’s “Siddhartha.”

His “Thor” director...an animated and egoless filmmaker who suggested that he prepare for the film by reading Hesse’s “Siddhartha.”

tbf everyone should read Siddhartha (preferably by age 16) so I can't be too mad at him for that

Or there's the not-quite-the-same-thing movie version.

Rene Rodriguez likes.

like anyone ever heard of this comic

yeah its only been published continually since the early 1960s and was created by the most famous american comic book writer-artist team of all time

u take lolbait

(not that I'd ever heard of it)

All the kids are into Norse mythology these days anyway

I saw this last night. Fun but stupid and surprisingly (or maybe not?) Portman was the worst part of the flick.

Serious lack of Beta Ray Bill I felt.

http://www.comics101.com/comics101//news/Comics%20101/335/Beta%20Ray%20Bill%201.jpg

Can I just say my biggest complaint re: Marvel vs Capcom 3 is that Beta Ray Bill isn't one of Thor's alternate skins?

Did the Frog of Thunder make the cut?

Fun but stupid and surprisingly (or maybe not?) Portman was the worst part of the flick.

^^yep and surprisingly, this was the flick that made me realise that, apart from maybe Black Swan, i pretty much don't like Natalie Portman in any movie ever. It's weird, I feel like I've always had this positive impression of her in movies but that's really just her Hollywood image isn't it? Garden State. Star Wars prequels. That one movie with Ashton Kutcher. Closer. V for Vendetta. Anywhere but Here. god she's horrible.

anyway, she was totally lost in this, the only person who did not realise she was in a big dumb THOR movie directed by Kenneth Branagh.

she's crap!

yeah she's awful

p. cool lil movie about cosmic space gods on 8-legged horses hurling thunder bolts at freaking big-ass frost giants

i thought this was gonna be utter dogass, but it was a lot better than i expected (meaning it was moderately entertaining). charismatic cast (featuring the first engaging hopkins performance i can remember in like a decade+), Asgard was pretty cool & cosmic, some whomp-ass fight scenes - it could've been a tighter, more gripping movie in some respects, but it could've been a lot worse too

and portman's totally fine in it and has great chemistry with mr thor, tho their relaysh is p underwritten & perfunctory

guy playin loki really owns in this; also the frost giants are freakin... awesome

branagh uses a lot of dutch angles without really seeming to understand their purpose

movie was very balaeric true

bah, balearic*

idk what that means

it means that if you ask kenneth branagh what he thinks of king lear he just goes "BA!"

Yeah dude playing Loki is excellent. I guess he's gonna be the villain for The Avengers too so i can live with that.

Yeah I could've done without all the dutch angles, but Hemsworth has a fuckton of charm as Thor, the pacing is pretty good, Skaarsgard is surprisingly effective, Elba is great as Heimdahl, and Asgard itself looks so much like a bunch of Kirby panels I wanted to shit myself with joy. That part of it, as well as the dialogue amongst the Warriors Three, Branagh and his team definitely understood. I mean, I could easily picture myself sitting there seeing the Bifrost on a comics page with all of Kirby's technospeak descriptions. And the Asgardian dialogue was just florid enough to sound like a Kirby/Lee Thor comic.

this was a lot of fun. the romance was completely tacked on but they managed to make a corny story convincing.

Looked great, but Hemsworth/Portman had all the chemistry of a game of frog baseball. But it looked great.

Natalie Portman = worst actress alive.

Does she win for most number of crap movies in a row interrupted by an Oscar an the middle of her crap run?

Have to assume Theron, Witherspoon and Bullock are still in the running.

also Berry