As storytelling twists go, the Thor franchise, especially in relation to its siblings in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has always been relatively light on shocking revelations. There's nothing in any of the individual films, including the new Thor: Ragnarok that is anywhere on the level of Captain America finding out that S.H.I.E.L.D. is secretly being run by HYDRA, or that Peter Parker's homecoming date was actually the daughter of his arch nemesis. The film does have its share of twists, though, and full credit goes to whoever cut the trailer for effectively masking a lot of key plot points. Obviously, they learned a lot from the "Terminator 2" school of how NOT to make a movie trailer.
The film reveals its first twist early: Hela is Thor's older sister who was banished for her ambition to basically conquer the entire galaxy. Anyone familiar with the comics and even Norse mythology will know that there's some strange familial connection between Hela and Loki; she's supposedly Loki's daughter, albeit of a past incarnation of Loki yadda yadda yadda. I was actually wondering how they planned to address this in the film, and truth be told I like the way they handled it; it's a lot less convoluted this way. It's not that big of a spoiler when one thinks about it, especially considering how early it was revealed in the film, but given that it was conscientiously concealed up until the film's release I suppose it does count as one.
The next major twist, one that goes hand-in-hand with the revelation of who Hela is, is that Odin, before his benevolent Allfather days, was in fact a warmongering, imperialistic sonofabitch who conquered the nine realms with his equally bloodthirsty daughter. This is revealed with great flourish when Hela destroys a Sistine-chapel-like fresco adorning the ceiling of Asgard's throne room depicting Odin and his sons, only to reveal a much older, Byzantine-like painting underneath which chronicles Odin's days of bloody conquest, in which Odin sports an imposing, antler-like helmet much like Hela's. If I may be honest, this was a bit of a wasted opportunity for me; it's been hinted in past installments that Odin was hardly the noble and benevolent ruler that his subjects believed him to be, that he had more than a few dark secrets. Hela and this grim past are easily among the darkest of his secrets, but Odin himself is no longer around to face the fallout, having disintegrated much, much earlier in the film. If nothing else, I would have loved to have seen Hopkins and Blanchett face off in a father-daughter confrontation. I get, however, that it may have upset the delicate balance in tone that Taika Waititi had achieved and so Odin turns into a more benign, Obi-Wan-Kenobi-like presence instead.
The final twist, that Thor would have to destroy Asgard in order to save it, was a pretty clever play on the usual cataclysmic superhero movie ending where the mission is to save the world from blowing up. It was akin to the clever climax of Doctor Strange in which the destruction of Hong Kong was played in reverse. Again, full credit goes to the guys who cut the trailer, who gave us all the impression that it was Hela who would blow up Asgard, when in fact it was not at all in her best interests to do so. I liked this twist, and the maturity of Thor's decision to essentially destroy his homeworld and to finally assume the mantle of King of Asgard. I also liked that the events of this movie did not leave him unscathed, as, aside from his haircut he loses an eye to Hela in their climactic battle. It was fitting to see him wearing an eye-patch, at the end of the film, as he finally accepted his birthright as the new Allfather.
There was at least one aspect of the film that didn't really sit well with me, though.
The manner in which the Warriors Three were dispatched, for example, left me kind of cold. Again, I imagine this was a question of not upsetting the film's tone, but for Thor's closest comrades-in-arms, at least, as they were described in the first film, to die such abrupt onscreen deaths, felt like a bit of a disservice to them. I was glad that at least Heimdall survived, at that Jamie Alexander's Sif, who does not appear in this film, was spared such an ignominious end. Overall, though, between the depictions (or non-depictions) of Odin, the Warriors Three, Heimdall and Sif, I really did get the sense of "Ragnarok," which translates loosely as the end of all things and the beginning of new ones, as Waititi clearly made it a point to discard old characters and bring in new ones.
Natalie Portman's Jane Foster, as well as her sidekicks Darcy and Selvig played by Kat Dennings and Stellan Skarsgard, are nowhere to be found, and to be honest, that's kind of a good thing.
For all of the absences, though, there were a couple of appearances that were riotous fun, like much ballyhooed Matt Damon cameo, in which Damon plays an Asgardian playing Loki in a play about his "death" in the last film. With Chris Hemsworth's brother Luke playing an Asgardian playing Thor, and Jurassic Park actor (and Waititi collaborator) Sam Neill playing an Asgardian playing Odin, the entire scene featuring the play was chock full of fun cameos. I don't know how often Marvel will be able to pull such high profile cameos like this off, but I would be so very glad if this is the start of a new trend for them.
I really want to see this movie again!
Friday, October 27, 2017
Thursday, October 26, 2017
The "Thor" Movie We've All Been Waiting For: A Spoiler-Free Review of Thor: Ragnarok
directed by Taika Waititi
written by Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost
Six years after Marvel Studios introduced Chris Hemsworth to audiences as Thor, the God of Thunder, and four years after the mildly entertaining but ultimately forgettable sequel, indie film director Taika Waititi (Hunt for the Wilderpeople) delivers what many of us may have started to believe we would never see: a truly exceptional Thor movie.
The movie starts out with Thor neutralizing a serious threat to Asgard, only to finally discover the ruse that his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has been maintaining since the end of the last movie: he was pretending to be the Allfather Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Thor and Loki journey to Earth, where they find the real Odin, who informs them of a threat that could consume all of Asgard: the wicked, insanely powerful Hela, who shows up shortly thereafter and, as has been widely seen in the trailers, destroys Thor's hammer. Knowing they are outmatched, Loki has himself and Thor summoned back to Asgard, only for Hela to knock them both out of the Bifrost in mid-transport en route to taking over all of Asgard. Thor finds himself on a strange junk-laden planet called Sakaar, where he is captured by the tough-as-nails, perpetually boozing Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) who brings him before the planet's loopy despot, the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), with whom Loki has aligned himself. The Grandmaster holds gladiatorial contests between various creatures from across the galaxy for fun, and tells Thor that he may leave, for as long as he defeats his champion. The complication, though, is that this champion happens to be none other than Thor's Avengers teammate the incredible Hulk, who, for some reason has not transformed back into Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) for quite some time. Thor will have to overcome this challenge, return to Asgard and defeat Hela if he is to have any hope of saving Asgard.
The problem that has bedeviled the Thor standalone franchise since day one has been one of tone. The concept itself, i.e. space Vikings interacting with earthlings is just so inherently ridiculous that it's not really possible to do one of these films with a completely straight face. Kenneth Branagh's first film represented a pretty strong effort to address this problem, but even though the film was a good enough introduction to the character, the tonal problem persisted. The second film seemed content to coast on the success of the first, and of the massive success of The Avengers.
With this film, it genuinely feels as though the brain trust at Marvel sat down with their quirky director and really tried to address the problem, and their solution, which was to turn the absurdity of it up to 11, is a total winner.
I've noticed, reading even the glowing reviews, that there have been a few gripes about how Waititi's off-kilter vision is spoiled by the "generic" superhero aspects of the story, basically lamenting that the whole Hela/Asgard aspect of the film weighs down the wacky joy of Thor's and Hulk's hi-jinks on the planet Sakaar. I basically think they're reading it wrong. Introducing Hela into the story is a natural progression for this particular franchise; anyone with even a passing knowledge of the Thor comic book mythology knows how crucial Hela is to the whole narrative, and goodness knows the fan community had been waiting for her long enough (certainly more than they were for the utterly forgettable Malekith from the second film). In short, bringing Hela to the big screen was always a question not of if, but of when...and HOW. To my mind, having Cate Blanchett breathe life into one of Thor's iconic villains was exactly the way Marvel needed to go, but then there was still the aspect of Ragnarok being a bit of a downer. Make no mistake: as fun as this movie is, Hela gets to be Hela, the goddess of death, and racks up an appropriate body count. Anyone looking to bring small children should bear that in mind; the movie has its fair share of extremely violent moments. Could audiences have sat through two and a half hours of that? Of course not. Marvel might not even have made their coveted PG-13 rating, no matter how bloodless the various skewering scenes may have been.
And that's where Waititi's demented re-imagining of the popular 2006 Hulk story line "Planet Hulk" basically comes in and completely saves the day. It's the perfect counterweight to the grim cataclysm that is Hela, but at the same time would make little to no sense without it. Blanchett's Hela is still a wicked delight but could not have been this enjoyable had we watched her rain terror down upon on our Asgardian heroes throughout the entire film, which is why Sakaar, led by Jeff Goldblum's ultra-zany Grandmaster is exactly what the film needs to balance out that unrelenting grimness. On the other hand, without the urgency of the threat Hela posed, the film would have lost its emotional anchor and the craziness of Sakaar would have just felt a tad arbitrary. A delicate balancing act was required, and Waititi absolutely nailed it. In the 80s-flavored neon-colored Sakaar sequences, even the requisite CGI comes to life in a way that hasn't been seen before. There's a real joy in seeing Thor and Hulk dressed up as gladiators, exchanging some real haymakers; it's what many of us have been yearning for since their very, VERY brief exchange of fisticuffs in The Avengers five long years ago. Also, I'm reasonably confident that the people who remember the mutant dog fight from the disastrous 2003 Hulk solo movie will take joy in seeing the jade giant taking on a giant canine in a fight that's actually entertaining this time.
In discarding both Thor's trademark hammer and long hair, Waititi symbolically discards things the character has long been associated with and effectively severs the entire franchise from narrative slog that could easily have bogged it down with a case of the dreaded threequel-itis. The transformation is more than just physical; Hemsworth takes the opportunity to play Thor very differently from the Shakespeare-esque, tragic figure he cut in the first movie and the square-jawed hero he played in the second. Ironically, this is where Hemsworth gets to let his proverbial hair down, and one can tell he's really having a great time here. He's got great onscreen chemistry with his newfound best bud Hulk, and his alter ego Bruce Banner. Even the normally scene-stealing Hiddleston as Loki takes a step back, playing it a little more straight this time so as to let Hemsworth do his thing, and to my mind, it works like a charm. Speaking of scene-stealers, franchise newcomer Tessa makes a fantastic first impression as the nameless Valkyrie, a legendary warrior with a dark secret. She's a hell of a character, just brimming with potential, and I quite appreciated that she wasn't there to "hook up" with anyone. The shot of her striding in slow motion from a crashed spaceship, her trusty sword Dragonfang in hand, towards an army of undead Asgardians, is, as tiresome as this description may be, genuinely epic. Waititi himself turns in an inspired motion-captured cameo as the alien rock character Korg.
Not all of the cast are quite so memorable; Anthony Hopkins returns as Odin, and while his acting here is a genuine improvement over his phoned-in performance in the last film, it still falls far short of his striking turn as the Allfather in the first film. He does have a wickedly funny moment when he's playing Loki playing Odin, but that is all too brief. Also, the talented Karl Urban feels a little wasted as Asgardian ne'er-do-well-turned-henchman Skurge, though he does have a memorable moment involving two M-16 assault rifles. Idris Elba's Heimdall may be sporting a new look and a new sense of purpose, i.e. keeping Asgard's citizens safe from Hela, but he still feels like window-dressing. And the less said about the Warriors Three (Ray Stevenson as Volstagg, Zachary Levi as Fandrall, and Tadanobu Asano as Hogun), the better. Still, there does seem to be some consistency here with the general theme of out with the old, in with the new.
In the end, what's most noteworthy is that this isn't the Thor we have come to know; this is something genuinely, remarkably different, and the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is very much the better for it.
8.5/10
written by Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost
Six years after Marvel Studios introduced Chris Hemsworth to audiences as Thor, the God of Thunder, and four years after the mildly entertaining but ultimately forgettable sequel, indie film director Taika Waititi (Hunt for the Wilderpeople) delivers what many of us may have started to believe we would never see: a truly exceptional Thor movie.
The movie starts out with Thor neutralizing a serious threat to Asgard, only to finally discover the ruse that his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has been maintaining since the end of the last movie: he was pretending to be the Allfather Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Thor and Loki journey to Earth, where they find the real Odin, who informs them of a threat that could consume all of Asgard: the wicked, insanely powerful Hela, who shows up shortly thereafter and, as has been widely seen in the trailers, destroys Thor's hammer. Knowing they are outmatched, Loki has himself and Thor summoned back to Asgard, only for Hela to knock them both out of the Bifrost in mid-transport en route to taking over all of Asgard. Thor finds himself on a strange junk-laden planet called Sakaar, where he is captured by the tough-as-nails, perpetually boozing Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) who brings him before the planet's loopy despot, the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), with whom Loki has aligned himself. The Grandmaster holds gladiatorial contests between various creatures from across the galaxy for fun, and tells Thor that he may leave, for as long as he defeats his champion. The complication, though, is that this champion happens to be none other than Thor's Avengers teammate the incredible Hulk, who, for some reason has not transformed back into Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) for quite some time. Thor will have to overcome this challenge, return to Asgard and defeat Hela if he is to have any hope of saving Asgard.
The problem that has bedeviled the Thor standalone franchise since day one has been one of tone. The concept itself, i.e. space Vikings interacting with earthlings is just so inherently ridiculous that it's not really possible to do one of these films with a completely straight face. Kenneth Branagh's first film represented a pretty strong effort to address this problem, but even though the film was a good enough introduction to the character, the tonal problem persisted. The second film seemed content to coast on the success of the first, and of the massive success of The Avengers.
With this film, it genuinely feels as though the brain trust at Marvel sat down with their quirky director and really tried to address the problem, and their solution, which was to turn the absurdity of it up to 11, is a total winner.
I've noticed, reading even the glowing reviews, that there have been a few gripes about how Waititi's off-kilter vision is spoiled by the "generic" superhero aspects of the story, basically lamenting that the whole Hela/Asgard aspect of the film weighs down the wacky joy of Thor's and Hulk's hi-jinks on the planet Sakaar. I basically think they're reading it wrong. Introducing Hela into the story is a natural progression for this particular franchise; anyone with even a passing knowledge of the Thor comic book mythology knows how crucial Hela is to the whole narrative, and goodness knows the fan community had been waiting for her long enough (certainly more than they were for the utterly forgettable Malekith from the second film). In short, bringing Hela to the big screen was always a question not of if, but of when...and HOW. To my mind, having Cate Blanchett breathe life into one of Thor's iconic villains was exactly the way Marvel needed to go, but then there was still the aspect of Ragnarok being a bit of a downer. Make no mistake: as fun as this movie is, Hela gets to be Hela, the goddess of death, and racks up an appropriate body count. Anyone looking to bring small children should bear that in mind; the movie has its fair share of extremely violent moments. Could audiences have sat through two and a half hours of that? Of course not. Marvel might not even have made their coveted PG-13 rating, no matter how bloodless the various skewering scenes may have been.
And that's where Waititi's demented re-imagining of the popular 2006 Hulk story line "Planet Hulk" basically comes in and completely saves the day. It's the perfect counterweight to the grim cataclysm that is Hela, but at the same time would make little to no sense without it. Blanchett's Hela is still a wicked delight but could not have been this enjoyable had we watched her rain terror down upon on our Asgardian heroes throughout the entire film, which is why Sakaar, led by Jeff Goldblum's ultra-zany Grandmaster is exactly what the film needs to balance out that unrelenting grimness. On the other hand, without the urgency of the threat Hela posed, the film would have lost its emotional anchor and the craziness of Sakaar would have just felt a tad arbitrary. A delicate balancing act was required, and Waititi absolutely nailed it. In the 80s-flavored neon-colored Sakaar sequences, even the requisite CGI comes to life in a way that hasn't been seen before. There's a real joy in seeing Thor and Hulk dressed up as gladiators, exchanging some real haymakers; it's what many of us have been yearning for since their very, VERY brief exchange of fisticuffs in The Avengers five long years ago. Also, I'm reasonably confident that the people who remember the mutant dog fight from the disastrous 2003 Hulk solo movie will take joy in seeing the jade giant taking on a giant canine in a fight that's actually entertaining this time.
In discarding both Thor's trademark hammer and long hair, Waititi symbolically discards things the character has long been associated with and effectively severs the entire franchise from narrative slog that could easily have bogged it down with a case of the dreaded threequel-itis. The transformation is more than just physical; Hemsworth takes the opportunity to play Thor very differently from the Shakespeare-esque, tragic figure he cut in the first movie and the square-jawed hero he played in the second. Ironically, this is where Hemsworth gets to let his proverbial hair down, and one can tell he's really having a great time here. He's got great onscreen chemistry with his newfound best bud Hulk, and his alter ego Bruce Banner. Even the normally scene-stealing Hiddleston as Loki takes a step back, playing it a little more straight this time so as to let Hemsworth do his thing, and to my mind, it works like a charm. Speaking of scene-stealers, franchise newcomer Tessa makes a fantastic first impression as the nameless Valkyrie, a legendary warrior with a dark secret. She's a hell of a character, just brimming with potential, and I quite appreciated that she wasn't there to "hook up" with anyone. The shot of her striding in slow motion from a crashed spaceship, her trusty sword Dragonfang in hand, towards an army of undead Asgardians, is, as tiresome as this description may be, genuinely epic. Waititi himself turns in an inspired motion-captured cameo as the alien rock character Korg.
Not all of the cast are quite so memorable; Anthony Hopkins returns as Odin, and while his acting here is a genuine improvement over his phoned-in performance in the last film, it still falls far short of his striking turn as the Allfather in the first film. He does have a wickedly funny moment when he's playing Loki playing Odin, but that is all too brief. Also, the talented Karl Urban feels a little wasted as Asgardian ne'er-do-well-turned-henchman Skurge, though he does have a memorable moment involving two M-16 assault rifles. Idris Elba's Heimdall may be sporting a new look and a new sense of purpose, i.e. keeping Asgard's citizens safe from Hela, but he still feels like window-dressing. And the less said about the Warriors Three (Ray Stevenson as Volstagg, Zachary Levi as Fandrall, and Tadanobu Asano as Hogun), the better. Still, there does seem to be some consistency here with the general theme of out with the old, in with the new.
In the end, what's most noteworthy is that this isn't the Thor we have come to know; this is something genuinely, remarkably different, and the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is very much the better for it.
8.5/10
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Nothing is Awesome: A Review of the Lego Ninjago Movie
directed by Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher, Bob Logan
written by Too Many People
When The Lego Movie charmed the socks off of moviegoers three years ago, it did so through a combination of colorful, engaging visuals, crackling humor and a generous helping of sincerity. While I didn't see the spinoff/follow-up early this year called The Lego Batman movie, from the reviews and grosses it seems they replicated the formula, albeit to slightly less success. What mattered most, though was that through strong storytelling and heartfelt acting in both cases the filmmakers were able to get audiences to overlook the fact that at the end of the day, both movies were basically hour-and-a-half-long toy commercials.
With The Lego Ninjago Movie, however, they fell fall short of that goal.
Essentially an extended episode of the fairly popular television show on Cartoon Network, The Lego Ninjago movie tells the story of Lloyd (Dave Franco) and his friends the Ninjas (Fred Armisen, Michael Pena, Kumail Nanjiani, Abbi Jacobson and Zach Woods), who protect the city of Ninjago from the evil overlord Garmadon (Justin Theroux) who, in an unpleasant twist, also happens to be Lloyd's father. When Garmadon gets the upper hand on the Ninjas, they will have to dig deep, with the help of their mentor, Master Wu (Jackie Chan) to find the courage to save the day.
It's saddening that, only three movies in, the brain trust behind The Lego Movie has run out of steam creatively. The Lego Movie may have been ultimately geared toward selling toys, but at least back then they recognized that to get fannies in the seats, they had to tell a good story too. That wisdom appears to have been completely thrown out the window here. Save for a few jokes here and there about the nature of Lego pieces and despite the mightiest efforts of voice actors Franco and Theroux, the film is virtually devoid of wit and, even worse, of any heart. I mean, for crying out loud, when every henchman screams the oft-derided "Wilhelm" scream, one can't help but feel the filmmakers are basically on autopilot. I wasn't turned off so much by the lack of craft, because truth be told, there is still quite a bit of production value on display here. Rather, I was really just struck by the cynicism that pervades this film. It's really all about the bottom line, and there's barely any pretense to the contrary.
Each "Ninja" trots around in an elaborate Lego "mech" which is currently on sale at your favorite toy store. Basically, they couldn't have screamed "we want your cash" any louder if they'd actually written it into the dialogue.
My metaphorical hat goes off to Franco, Theroux and the motley cast of comedians WB cast for trying their darnedest to give some personality to this crassly commercial undertaking, but honestly, not even A-listers like Will Ferrell or Will Arnett could have saved this thing.
5.5/10
written by Too Many People
When The Lego Movie charmed the socks off of moviegoers three years ago, it did so through a combination of colorful, engaging visuals, crackling humor and a generous helping of sincerity. While I didn't see the spinoff/follow-up early this year called The Lego Batman movie, from the reviews and grosses it seems they replicated the formula, albeit to slightly less success. What mattered most, though was that through strong storytelling and heartfelt acting in both cases the filmmakers were able to get audiences to overlook the fact that at the end of the day, both movies were basically hour-and-a-half-long toy commercials.
With The Lego Ninjago Movie, however, they fell fall short of that goal.
Essentially an extended episode of the fairly popular television show on Cartoon Network, The Lego Ninjago movie tells the story of Lloyd (Dave Franco) and his friends the Ninjas (Fred Armisen, Michael Pena, Kumail Nanjiani, Abbi Jacobson and Zach Woods), who protect the city of Ninjago from the evil overlord Garmadon (Justin Theroux) who, in an unpleasant twist, also happens to be Lloyd's father. When Garmadon gets the upper hand on the Ninjas, they will have to dig deep, with the help of their mentor, Master Wu (Jackie Chan) to find the courage to save the day.
It's saddening that, only three movies in, the brain trust behind The Lego Movie has run out of steam creatively. The Lego Movie may have been ultimately geared toward selling toys, but at least back then they recognized that to get fannies in the seats, they had to tell a good story too. That wisdom appears to have been completely thrown out the window here. Save for a few jokes here and there about the nature of Lego pieces and despite the mightiest efforts of voice actors Franco and Theroux, the film is virtually devoid of wit and, even worse, of any heart. I mean, for crying out loud, when every henchman screams the oft-derided "Wilhelm" scream, one can't help but feel the filmmakers are basically on autopilot. I wasn't turned off so much by the lack of craft, because truth be told, there is still quite a bit of production value on display here. Rather, I was really just struck by the cynicism that pervades this film. It's really all about the bottom line, and there's barely any pretense to the contrary.
Each "Ninja" trots around in an elaborate Lego "mech" which is currently on sale at your favorite toy store. Basically, they couldn't have screamed "we want your cash" any louder if they'd actually written it into the dialogue.
My metaphorical hat goes off to Franco, Theroux and the motley cast of comedians WB cast for trying their darnedest to give some personality to this crassly commercial undertaking, but honestly, not even A-listers like Will Ferrell or Will Arnett could have saved this thing.
5.5/10
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