Speaking of silly costumes, we have another new image of Kenneth Branagh’s “Thor” arriving today. Honestly, we figured with Branagh on board, this Marvel film would be much different and it would quickly become our most anticipated movie of the entire bunch that culminates in “The Avengers.”
There was much to like about his film from the get go and they seemed to be taking some excellent chances, or at least casting the right actor for the role (imagine!) instead of just hiring a popular face. The lead hero was basically an unknown (Aussie Chris Hemsworth, who had basically only done a small opening role in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek,” or at least as far as Hollywood was concerned) which is bold. The villain was unknown outside the U.K. (English actor Tom Hiddleston as Loki,) and they wouldn’t be shooting in 3D (ok, but now they’re converting it to 3D).
This one obviously shows Thor (Hemsworth) and his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) in their too-pristine and shiny suits (why not just make them look like garb you’d see in a King Arthur-like picture, instead of this silly faux-futuristic steampunk aesthetic).
The fashion and mien of it just feels all wrong. It’s like something you’d see in “Star Trek VII” or one of those later era Trek films that you’d have never bothered watching unless you were a severe glutton for punishment. So far the look is camp and Branagh, instead of taking it all too seriously (which was the genuine concern of fans at first), it looks like he’s gone in the opposite direction and realized what he’s doing is not Shakespeare in the least. A lot of quotes suggest he’s having “fun” with the picture which makes us shudder a bit, because it’s already far too easy to not take these movies very seriously, and the only way to do that is ground them in some kind of plausible reality (like Nolan did with the Batman series, obviously).
Whatever, maybe it is just a silly comic book movie. But honestly, we do want these films to succeed. We’d simply would rather have “Iron Man” or “X-Men” over “Daredevil” in quality/unintentional laughter. Is that too much to ask?
“Thor” also stars Natalie Portman (the love interest), Jaimie Alexander, Colm Feore, probably Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Stellan Skarsgård, Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Rene Russo, Adriana Barraza and Clark Gregg (as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Coulson) as confirmed by recent Comic-Con press info.
