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I saw Thor yesterday and it was good! Really good, actually. I didn't enjoy it as much as Iron Man because the central character/performance isn't as compelling but that's not to say Chris Hemsworth as Thor is bad. He played the role well and made Thor likeable yet seem of another time and place - he isn't a contemporary man.

It's different to all the other superhero origin stories we're getting because it's not about a man discovering or getting powers - Thor was born with them (right?). Thor's journey is about learning humility and maturing to the point where he is worthy of those powers, understanding the responsibility and the consequences of them. Where other men become superheroes, Thor is a superhero becoming a man.

I haven't read the comics and what I know of the character made me fear that his mythical origins and magical powers wouldn't gel with the technology based universe that Marvel set up in Iron Man. But they did a really good job of making Thor's abilities not seem hokey, drawing on Arthur C. Clarke to raise the idea that magic is science they don't understand yet.

I thought it was paced and structured well, though the transitions from Earth to Asgard were occasionally slightly jarring. The CGI for the most part was really impressive, with the ice creatures very convincing. Branagh used a lot of tilted angles and quick cuts during the fight scenes and it would have been nice to see the camera pull back and remain steady so that you could really appreciate them, but you could still tell what was going on - it wasn't all shaky cam a la the later Bourne movies. I'd need to see it again with a more critical eye to really judge the direction but I think Branagh did a good job overall.

I think he certainly pulled good performances from the actors. I've been having trouble with Natalie Portman lately but she was really charming here. Anthony Hopkins does kingly gravitas well and in other news the sky is blue. There was quite a lot of humour in the script to, some of it physical, but mostly good jokes delivered well.

As for the characters, there were so many good ones! Especially the women! The movie passes the Bechdel test in the first two minutes, I promise. In the comics Jane Foster (Portman) is a nurse but here she's an astrophysicist which I think was a really good change because it ties her storyline to Thor's for reasons other than she fancies him. She's shown to be passionate about her career, intelligent, and kind of a dork - I really liked her. She's aided and abetted by her assisstant Darcy (Kat Dennings) and guys, I really love Darcy and want to write fic about her. She's mostly there for comedic relief but she still comes across as a normal person. ( Spoiler that you've probably seen in the trailer but that I'll cut anyway )

And then there is Sif, who is one of Thor's friends and a badass warrior. There's a moment early in the film that I really like where ( Dialogue spoiler ) I've learnt that in the comics she's sometimes a love interest of Thor's but they didn't really play on that, just showing them as good friends and her as one of the guys. Sometimes its just nice to have female characters who aren't shown to be in a romantic relationship with one of the gang.

( Having said that, on shipping )

Idris Elba as Heimdall was really good, very noble and stoic. I've been a fan of Tom Hiddleston for a while and his Loki was complex. Shame about what they did to his hair, though (black and straight where it's normally blonde and curly. His fan community on LJ is called magnificenthair for a reason!) ( Plot spoilers )

Final verdict: fun and entertaining. It may not have a whole lot of depth but it's not shallow and you won't feel stupider for seeing it.

Hello internet! I hope you all haven't decamped for some other journal site as I have a couple of random bits and pieces to share.

For the Austen fans, here is the first picture of Elinor and Marianne from the BBC's new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.



I'm sure you're capable of guessing which is which.

I'm cautiously optimistic for this new production. The script was written by Andrew Davies, who did the 95 Pride and Prejudice and the recent Northanger Abbey, so 'yay' there. However, I really love Emma Thompson's film version with ALAN RICKMAN and Hugh Laurie and Greg Wise and Kate Winslet and Ang Lee's gorgeous direction. I'm not really sure that this new version is necessary, just like the new film version of Pride and Prejudice wasn't necessary (or good, for that matter).

And while I like David Morrissey very much as an actor (I recently watched Our Mutual Friend with my mum and she was blown away by his performance in that), he doesn't have Alan Rickman's middle-aged hotness or Alan Rickman's voice of hotness...in short, Alan Rickman owns that role for me and David Morrissey just isn't going to cut it.

Anyway.

For the fans of Friday Night Lights, the season 1 DVD cover has been released and well...it's fugly.

( Check it )

I get that the Panthers' colours are blue and yellow but did they have to make all the photos so horribly yellow? Against the blue background, it's terrible. I also really dislike the photos they've chosen. They do very little to show what the show is all about. And while I applaud their decision to make Kyle Chandler look like the Jesus, where is Connie Britton's matching halo?

So yeah. Change the cover NBC.

For fans of Kenneth Branagh I have...well a story about Kenneth Branagh.

I was working on Sunday (for those not in the know, I am a waitress at a very fancy French restaurant) and at one of my tables was this really lovely couple. They asked me my name (this has happened exactly once before) and what I was studying and I mentioned I'd done a unit on Shakespeare last semester. This lead them to tell me that their daughter basically wrote to Kenneth Branagh asking for help on how to get into the business of show (on the technical side) and he wrote back and she wound up working with him on Othello in Italy! Her parents have even had dinner with him and say he's just lovely.

*waits for everyone to get back from writing letters, either 'Ken, please let me learn from your wisdom' or 'Ken, please let me have your babies!'*

Finally, another picture, one that is just plain adorable. One of my favourite things about Alias was the relationship between Sydney Bristow, and her father, Jack. Well, the actors playing Sydeny and Jack, Jennifer Garner and Victor Garber, became really close (he was at her wedding to Ben Affleck and Matt Damon wasn't! ZOMG!!1!) and it's nice to see that they still are in a friendly, not creepy at all kind of way.

( Spy family reunites! )

How cute is that? And that stroller looks a bit too small for her daughter so it's obviously a present which makes the whole thing even more adorable. Still, even holding a tiny pink stroller, he totally looks like he would torture you in the most painful way imaginable for just saying Sydney's name.

Because Jack Bristow is a badass. *nods*

Last night I saw The Da Vinci Code. My parents were paying, otherwise I probably wouldn't have bothered.

I've read the book. I like the book. It's not a great book but it is enjoyable. It has some major flaws (characterisation and Brown's writing style for starters) but I liked the (kinda) historical subject matter and I can read it in an afternoon if I just want to chill (I read really fast).

It's popular to hate the book. I guess it gives people a sense of superiority. Whatever. I like dipping into popular culture and have no problem with going from something like this to something 'literary'. 

The movie? The movie should be hated. It's awful. The suspense which made the book work is completely absent here, making it very slow.

It's badly shot. Too many close ups of the actors' faces, not enough wide shots to give you a sense of the art and architecture that is so important to the story.

The dialog is clunky  and fails to build on the book- Akiva Goldsman should not be allowed to write.

The book describes the main character, Robert Langdon, as 'Harrison Ford in Harris tweeds' so I damn well expected (Indianna Jones) Harrison Ford not Tom Hanks with a dead animal glued to his scalp pretending to be hair. Hanks is woefully miscast and doesn't even try with this admittedly two-dimensional character. He's too old to be opposite the gorgeous Audrey Tautou, who plays Sophie. She doesn't do much with her character either but she does improve towards the end of the movie. 

Alfred Molina, one of my favourite actors, doesn't get to do nearly enough. Jean Reno is quite good. Ian McKellen is fantastic as the Grail expert Leigh Teabing and I thought Paul Bettany was excellent as Silas the monk. His character is very creepy and the whole audience gasped at one point when he just appeared.

The big controversial story line? It's handled ok.
The movie is long and I would have preferred if certain scenes were cut in order to spend more time with
The big problem is the pacing - the book managed to be an enjoyable thriller despite its many faults,  because of all the twists and turns Brown employed which were manipulative but effective. The movie lacks this and thus ruins the opportunity to make a decent thriller. 

However I'm glad I went because the milk shake I bought was fantastic (Swiss Choc Caramel) and I saw the trailers for Superman Returns and Casino Royale. Kevin Spacey looks like he's having fun in SR, while the new Bond film looks very pretty.