Is it cheating to analyze a film’s potential after it opened in another country? Not if you don’t read those reviews or look at any aggregates or posts about that film until after you write your prognosticating post.
Thor, the latest Marvel superhero to get the big screen treatment, opens this Friday. Based on the trailers alone, it is time to determine whether or not this film is worth seeing.
Let’s be honest here: much like Scream 4, you probably know if you’re going to see this film already. I’m on the “yes because someone else is paying for the tickets, popcorn, and soda pop” train, while others of you are superhero (or Marvel superhero) completists. It doesn’t matter how good or bad the film looks, you’ll go see it because you feel obligated. That’s cool.
However, with its basis in Norse mythology and darker tone, there might be some among us who are on the fence. This is for you, my fellow myth lovers.
The only downside to that trailer, for me, is the quality of the CGI on the fighting robots and the exterior of Asgard. I otherwise see good performances, great lighting design, and a superhero suit that looks like it could actually exist. The paradox of magic and science is explored and Anthony Hopkins gets to chew on the scenery. This has potential.
This trailer isn’t as hopeful. There is a lot more of the bad CGI and everything has been lightened to account for the 3D display. This is bad. Now we don’t just have cartoonish CGI; we have cartoonish CGI with photoshop quality reflection effects. The light glinting off the suits and robots isn’t making me sit up and take notice.
Worse is the humor. It’s falling really flat out of context. I can only hope the very dry, almost hipster-level, sarcasm is justified in the script beyond falling into a living version of the Look at This Hipster Tumblr.
This is a mix of the first two trailers. The humor is still there, but it’s less offensive than when it was the main focus. The views of that frozen monster (I’m not well-versed in Marvel’s Thor: is that Balder?) are cool, but the CGI is otherwise a bit cheesy looking.
I’d say it looks like it could be a fun building block leading to The Avengers film. The good–style, performances–should outweigh the bad–hit or miss humor, CGI. I hope. I don’t want to fall asleep during another superhero film and have to go rewatch it before reviewing it. That’s never fun.
