Meanwhile, on the planet of the Norwegian Plantagents

[neotoma]

greenygal and I went to see Thor on Saturday.

Oh, it was delightful!

Thor was as exuberant and unselfsconcious and as much as a goober as I'd hoped, and there was a lot of punching, just as kerrypolka promised in her review -- and Thor was totally Hotspur, just as she said.

Also, it was filmed on location in New Mexico, so it looks right! -- instead of like southern California, which is becoming a pet peeve of mine in television. Not to mention absolutely stunning CGI for Asgard, including some wonderful effects like a unique and non-cheesy Rainbow Bridge.

Thor really was a delight -- he was quite goofy, and yet so amazingly earnest. His enthusiasm and his practicality (I need to go 50 miles in that direction? Says farewell to his companions, starts walking) and his slightly off-kilter manners were a lot of fun. And I adore how he just adjusted and coped with being on Earth -- he didn't have the cliched 'fish out of water' experience, and adapted pretty quick once he got information and guidance from Jane, Eric and Darcy.

Speaking of Jane and Eric and Darcy -- science geeks for the win! They were quite a bit of fun, especially Darcy with her tazer (and I adored that she pulled it out and checked when Jane proposed to take them into danger). Poor Eric was trying to be the Only Sane Man, even in the face of some rather daunting evidence against rationality, and Jane was as brave and clever and quite believably attached to her research. And they had a neat base -- an old (50s-to60s) gas station converted into a lab from which they could chase their astrophysics phenomena out in the desert (which is kind of true -- southern New Mexico is almost entirely 'dark sky' for the astronomy research in the state).

Loki is surprisingly sympathetically treated in this, which is quite a change for other Marvel versions of him. In fact, his motivations seem to be entirely emotional, instead of material. Sure, he wants to be King, but it's more that he wants to be acknowledged to have the right to be King, to be Odin's confirmed and worthy heir. And possibly he wants to blot out any possibility that he can be linked back to Frost Giants, since finding out he is one seems to have broken him. His main failing -- beside his apparent emotional breakdown and descent into villiany -- is that he kept changing and elaborating his plans. He'd have succeeded in his goals if he had kept to one plan, instead of trying to run three partially incompatible plans at once -- and if he hadn't lied to Thor about Odin, which was part of the impetus for Thor to seriously reform, and a blatant lie that wouldn't stand up to a conversation with anyone from Asgard.

I'm still not sure what Odin's plans to bring about a 'permanent peace' by adopting Loki were. I took the fact that Loki was incredibly small for a Frost Giant and found abandoned to mean that he was being exposed as deformed, but the movie might not have intended that; I have to remind myself that Marvel Asgard is not Edda Asgard, so I need to toss out what I actually know about Norse culture and mythology and just go with what was presented in the film. Either way, I can't figure out what Odin meant to do with him -- install him as King of Jotunheim after Laufey died? Use him as an example that Frost Giants can be civilized and that Asgardians can co-exist with them happily? Any possible plan I can come with requires telling Loki he's a Jotun, instead of him finding out by accident the way he did.

I did adore that Frigga and Odin were both quite adamant that Loki was their son in the scenes where it was brought up. In the scene with Loki going to the Casket of Ancient Winters, his "Am I cursed?" is a bit wrenching, since he's asking that because he doesn't want to be true what he knows (because he was currently blue) to be true; he'd honestly prefer to be under a curse than to be a Jotun. And his anger at Odin makes perfect sense, and so does his concern and fear when Odin collapses. The scene when Loki asks Frigga why she didn't tell him was much quieter, but still very lovely, and makes me wonder if he was her favorite as Thor is probably Odin's.

There were only a couple of scenes that were surprises to me, since as fun as this movie is, it's not really original in plot. First and most outstanding was Thor going "I'm stuck as a mortal, I'd get squashed, so Sif, you and the Warriors Three take on the Destroyer. I'll help evacuate the town." Second, the bit where Loki double-crosses Laufey to rescue Odin, and it turns out that that was his plan the entire time -- he arranged a fairly risky scheme alll so that his father could see Loki saving him -- I had not expected that Loki's motivation would be so entirely towards getting emotional needs met. Third, it was pleasantly surprising in the denouement that Odin, Frigga, and Thor still considered Loki their son and brother -- and even Sif did, in offering sympathies -- because I've seen the trope where the adopted child gets thrown out of the family after going evil and it being blamed on them being 'born evil' too many times. I'm very pleased that the film completely averts it.

Agent Coulson was a delight, and I squeed when Thor addressed him as 'Son of Coul', because Thor would, right? He's a quite competent SHIELD agent, and I like competency in my fiction, especially if it comes with a bit of understated sarcasm, and it did. He'll be a lot of fun in the Avengers movie.

I did love the references to Yggdrasil -- the actual explanation Thor use in the night scene, the way the bridge station was turning into an ice/energy sculpture of a tree when it was overloading during Loki's attack on Jotunheim, and the World Tree made of galaxies during the end credits. Very very cool.

I do wish Idris Elba had more to do as Heimdall, but damn, he looked excellent doing what little he had to work with. Ray Stevenson was pretty much unrecognizable under Volstagg's beard, which was driving me crazy because I couldn't place him until I checked IMDB. I'm not famililar with other three actors -- playing Sif, Fandral, and Hogan -- but I hope they had fun and get more work out of this movie, because they certainly looked like they were having fun hamming it up.

Now I want fic for this, with wee!Thor and wee!Loki and wee!Sif and even wee!WarriorsThree. There's a bit of it on norsekink, and two stories on AO3, but I want more. I'm afraid that I'll start writing it if I don't find more that suits my tastes (gen, or at least non-Thor/Loki, because incest is not my kink)

Also, I might go see it again. Anyone up for a weekend afternoon of really pretty special effects and a rather fun plot involving punching things?

Comments

[ellen_fremedon]

I'd be up for seeing it this weekend. I've got a haircut appointment Saturday, but I should be free after 1 PM or so.

(And I am feeling a lack of Norse-ness in my life, because today is 17 May and I have no lefse.

Not that Thor will give me the same sort of Norse-ness at all, but still.)

[neotoma]

Is there a Scandinavian restaurant of *any* variety in the city at all? Because I'd be willing to *try* the food if we could find any place to *get* the food.

I'm up for something after 1pm. I'll keep my eye on the movie times.

And no, Thor will not give you that sense of Norse-ness. But it is rather Shakespearian, if Henry IV included superpowers. Obviously, an oversight by the Bard.

[ellen_fremedon]

Not that I know of. Alas. If I want lefse, I think I will have to make it myself.

(I do, however, have a Groupon to Addis Ababa that expires soon-ish. Want to go get Ethiopian after the movie?)

[neotoma]

I wouldn't mind trying lefse sometime, though I understand it's a lot of effort to make. Addis Ababa? Yes please, though to be truly effective we need more people -- I haven't had siksilosh in about a year, and it's too much for just we two.

[ellen_fremedon]

The Groupon expires June 15, so there's time.

[quigonejinn]

Memlu actually has another one on her journal that is more delicious wee!Thor, wee!Loki, and wee!Sif.

[neotoma]

Nope, that's the one of the two I linked to on AO3. But it *is* cute, isn't it?

wee!Thor and wee!Loki were so terribly cute in the movie for their scene, and wonderfully cast. wee!Thor just exuded cocky-ness, and wee!Loki was so serious.

[quigonejinn]

SO SERIOUS.

(Damn. I thought that it was the other one that she'd linked to? Ah well.)

[neotoma]

wee!Loki was so serious, you just wanted to pinch his cheeks and ruffle his hair. wee!Thor's bouncy confidence was almost shocking, next to the Serious Loki Is Serious (and Wee).

[amanuensis1]

I too loved how they curtailed the "fish out of water" thing, and got the same surprise when it turned out Loki didn't want Odin offed, he wanted to save his father and be thought worthy. Nifty stuff!

[neotoma]

Thor isn't *dumb*, he's just used to having Loki around to do the heavy thinking for him.

And Loki's motivations being entirely about 'Acknowledge me as the Good Son! Acknowledge ME!' were half heartbreaking and half disturbing. Especially since he did a lot to avoid having to try to kill Thor -- tried to continue the banishment, with escalating reasons why, and generally trying to protect all his family even as he pursued his goals of wiping out Jotunheim...

And I'm not entirely sure if Thor ever figures out or was told that Loki was a Frost Giant (and went bugfuck from finding that out). It's the kind of thing Odin would not break to Thor, at least going by the way he's written in the comic...

Gen "Thor" Fic

[sablin27.livejournal.com]

http://katsukofic.livejournal.com/tag/movie%3A%20thor