In Contention

Tag: Thor

  • OFF THE CARPET: Closing the book on summer 2011

    The summer movie season has come to an end, and what an interesting season it was.

    We saw three billion-dollar grossers for the first time ever in one year, let alone one three-month spread (thank you, 3D). We saw a bit of a glass ceiling for comic book movies, proving nothing is a sure thing in that game. We saw indie darlings with more stamina than the big dogs and we saw R-rated comedies find impressive footholds.

    But what does it mean in the spectrum of a film awards race, seeing as we have one knocking on our door in a bit more than a week’s time? Let’s consider.

    First and foremost, as reported here last year (and confirmed by Variety a few weeks ago), Warner Bros. Pictures is all set for a balls-to-the-wall Best Picture push for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.” With 10 digits in the bank and counting, and with a breathtaking critical pass, now is the time, and it’s a smart tactic. DVDs will be out right in the thick of the season, adding fuel to the fire. And it’ll be a nice counter to the other in-houses pushes, dramas like “Contagion,” “J. Edgar.,” and “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” (The studio could also go screenplay hunting for Dan Fogelman and “Crazy, Stupid, Love” if it wants.)

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  • Hero takes a fall

    In coming up with an idle, pop-related title for this post, I was faced with two choices: the one I eventually went with, or “We don’t need another hero.” I decided against the latter — partly because I’m sure other writers have already exhausted it, partly because The Bangles can always do with another shout-out — but in This Our Summer of the Superhero, it’d certainly be apt. With “Green Lantern” following “Thor,” “X-Men: First Class” and, earlier, its troublesome near-namesake “The Green Hornet” on the 2011 release schedule, and with “Captain America” still to come, casual moviegoers could be forgiven for wondering if their local multiplex has been part-colonized by ComicCon.

    It stands to reason that with so many darts being thrown at the same aesthetic and commercial target, some will hit their mark more squarely than others. If “Thor” managed to widely surpass expectations, the law of averages decrees that at least one of its Spandex-clad rivals will likely fail to meet them — or at least live down to expectations that had already been lowered. Critically, at least, it seems “Green Lantern” is taking that bullet: Kris may have appreciated Martin Campbell’s revival of one of the DC library’s dustier properties, but the first wave of reviews has been largely dismissive, with even the film’s vastly expensive effects work taking a beating from both high-end print critics and more genre-friendly bloggers like Drew McWeeny.

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  • Tell us what you thought of ‘Thor’

    I guess the summer movie season has officially kicked off (or did so last week, depending where you live) with the release of Kenneth Branagh’s take on Marvel’s “Thor.” For my money, it’s a pretty respectable start — an uneven but refreshingly uncynical popcorn adventure that announces a major star in the shape of Chris Hemsworth. You can read my full take on the film (seconded by Kris) here, but we want to know what you think. Have at it in the comments.

  • OFF THE CARPET: Setting the field

    It’s a strange feeling writing about this kind of thing after last night’s news announcement. But that chapter is finally behind us, so behind us it shall remain.

    This is not an Oscar column (even though it’s labeled as such). This is not a predictions column. This isn’t even really a column. We should all continue steering clear of the “O” word until, at the very soonest, the other side of Cannes, when we could have a couple of contenders to pencil in on the radar.

    Guy will once again be covering the festivities along the Croisette this year. We’ll find out which filmmakers unveiling — from Terrence Malick to Pedro Almodóvar, Lynne Ramsay to Gus Van Sant — have what it takes. And even then, the life of a Cannes title can see ebbs and flows all the way into the season. Look for Guy’s festival coverage, already easing in with daily previews, to take off in earnest next Wednesday.

    In the meantime, I thought I’d go ahead and amass the usual throw-it-all-at-the-wall list of potential contenders for the upcoming awards season. It’s nothing you haven’t already seen or considered, I imagine.

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  • REVIEW: “Thor” (***)

    As superheroes go—and go they do, with alarming frequency, at the cape-wearers’ convention that the multiplex has become in recent years—Thor, or at least the Marvel-authored Artist Formerly Known As Norse God Thor, is more super than most. Where most beloved superheroes are humans (at least ostensibly so) who grow into their superhuman powers as a kind of parallel puberty, Thor needn’t waste time on any such learning curve.

    He is, to reappropriate a quote from “Almost Famous,” a Golden God—quite literally golden as played by aggressively blond Australian up-and-comer Chris Hemsworth—and as such, preternatural strength and ability are things to which he feels entitled, not enslaved. Marvel’s Thor may be as boyish as the gangly Peter Parker or the gizmo-rapt Bruce Wayne, but it’s a boyishness of lifelong petulance rather than golly-gee self-awe; he may be better than his superhero brethren, but he’s also harder to know.

    That obstacle of relatability is both a debit and a distinguishing asset in Kenneth Branagh’s poppy, spirited addition to the Marvel adaptation gallery, and something that ultimately cleaves the film in two. An odd couple of films jostles for space in Branagh’s surprisingly trim 114-minute package: one a dourly earnest celestial battle epic set in Thor’s mythical, CGI-built home realm of Asgard, the other a sweetly goofy alien comedy set in the decidedly unmagical realm of New Mexico.

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  • The Super Bowl spots

    7. “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”
    Outrageous.  Make it stop.

    6. “Cowboys & Aliens”
    Though cluttered, expands on what we’ve seen.

    5. “Captain America: The First Avenger”
    Not a bad trailer but something lingering still has me on guard.

    4. “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
    A true teaser, promising escalation but more contained.

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  • Comic-Con 2010 on the way

    Well, the inbox is getting stuffed with this and that regarding breakfasts and panels and viral marketing and yada, yada, yada.  That can mean only one thing: Comic-Con is around the corner.  And as I poured over the recently released schedule over the weekend, I found myself excited for…very little.

    DreamWorks Animation will make its first appearance with the Will Ferrell-starrer “Megamind.” Disney will pretty much take over the place as “TRON Legacy” makes its third trip in as many years to San Diego.  Sony will be in Hall H two days, first offering up action fare with “Salt” (which opens the Friday of the convention) and “Battle: Los Angeles,” then coming back with comedies “The Other Guys” and “The Green Hornet.”

    Warner Bros. will tease “Green Lantern,” “Sucker Punch” and the new “Harry Potter” while Overture will have “Let Me In.”  Lionsgate will break out “The Expendables” and Universal is planning some hijinks for “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” to go along with Hall H presentations for the new Greg Mottola film “Paul” and the more appropriately positioned “Cowboys & Aliens.”

    Oh, and fresh off of giving Edward Norton the heave-ho for, I imagine, deigning to try and make “The Avengers” a better movie than it’s likely to be, Marvel Studios will strut its stuff with “Thor” and “Captain America: The First Avenger.”

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  • Paging Rene Russo

    Honestly, the last time the name “Rene Russo” crossed my mind, I was still wearing school uniform and Bill Clinton was still president of the United States. Even then, it was only fleetingly: if you want the last time she was in a film that actually merited a second thought, we’re looking more at the year my voice broke. (Yes, that’d be “Tin Cup.”) How time flies.

    Of course, film history is littered with the swiftly curtailed careers of briefly ubiquitous stars — women in particular, given the regrettable age-40 sell-by date the industry still applies to many actresses. Hey, remember Madeleine Stowe? Andie MacDowell? Penelope Ann Miller? I can’t say Russo’s big-screen absence struck me as especially conspicuous, but Telegraph arts editor Sarah Crompton clearly thinks otherwise.

    Crompton takes the casting of Russo in Kenneth Branagh’s Marvel comic adaptation “Thor” — her first film role in over five years — as occasion for a valentine to the actress, holding her up as a 1990s ideal of “the woman every woman wanted to be,” and mourning a larger absence in the process.

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  • 5/19 Web Round-up

    Jim Carrey in A Christmas Carol• Anthony Breznicaan reports on the big “Christmas Carol” to do at Cannes. [USA Today]

    • John Hiscock talks to Ron Howard about getting around the Vatican’s disapproval of “Angels & Demons” while filming on location. [Daily Telegraph]

    • David Cox, meanwhile, believes the film will indeed hurt the Catholic Church with its depiction of an organization out of touch with modernity. [The Guardian]

    • And Noah Forrest just wants to know what happened to the Tom Hanks he knew and loved. [Movie City News]

    • Richard Woodward reports on the Jacques Tati retrospective going down at the Cinemathèque Française in Paris [Wall Street Journal]

    • A bit out of the blue, a list of the 10 best suspense films of all time. [The Independent]

    • Erica Abeel talks to Steven Soderbergh about his latest, “The Girlfriend Experience.” [indieWIRE]

    • Nikki Finke reports that yet another actor you could care less about has been cast in Marvel’s “Thor.” [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

    • Well that’s thinking outside the media coverage box for you: a look at…ahem…the “slash” fan fiction of the “Star Trek” dedicated. [Newsweek]

    • Sam Raimi wants to go back in time and do everything on the “Spider-Man” franchise differently.  You and me both, Sam. [Hero Complex]

  • 5/18 Web Round-up

    Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian• “Star Trek” looks to be a hit off-world. [The Carpetbagger]

    • It looks like Kenneth Branagh and Marvel have found their Thor: Chris Hemsworth from “Star Trek.” [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

    • Jeff Sneider takes a long, hard look at the MTV Movie Awards. [Examiner.com]

    • Tom O’Neil poses the obvious question: Will “Angels & Demons” bring another Razzie bid for director Ron Howard? [Gold Derby]

    • Speaking of which, someone finally calls out the two worst writers in the business as responsible for the clunky film. [Peter Bart]

    • Dan Jolin wonders if the latest 3D craze is a bunch of hogwash. [Empire]

    • Laughing stock Roger Friedman gets a new gig as “senior correspondent.” [Hollywood Reporter]

    “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” premieres in D.C. [Washington Post]

    • On the stamina of fan-movie filmmakers. [The Independent]

    • Sad to see a once-great magazine reduced to nothing but constant top 10 lists, but here’s another one: top 10 “safe for work” movie strip scenes.  Oy. [Premiere]

    • Tom Shone talks to Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, writer/directors of the brilliant “Sugar.” [The Guardian]