I got the idea for this final task from one of the many things in fandom culture that frustrates me. The pointless arguing about whether thing A or B is better. I mean there's nothing wrong about talking what you like and don't like or disagreeing with people, but it's gotten ridiculous. For example year ago when Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released, the people who didn't like the film got so mad they started to threaten and harass the creators of the film.
While the Last Jedi case is one extreme example of this, I keep seeing these pointless fights going on. What is the better console? Who makes the best superhero films or comics? While there might be some good points too, mostly it's been just as pointless as fighting whether blue or red is the best colour.
In this one page comic I try to illustrate what I'm seeing. The arguments people have online are represented by an physical fight in my comic. Both participant thinks of themselves as a huge and powerful warrior, fighting for the most important thing in their life. However, in the end we see that the two are actually pretty much the same, with their preferred choice of colour being the only visible difference.
Process
My process of making the comic was pretty simple. I used Adobe Photoshop and Wacom drawing tablet at school. I'm not especially great at painting or drawing, but I had good time doing it.
1. Sketching. I draw a quick simple version of the panel
2. Coloured shapes. Under the sketch I paint the characters.
3. Shadows and lights. I simply use Photoshop's dodge and burn tools to give some life to the characters.
4. Faces. I give the characters facial features and their glasses.
5. The rest. I create the needed effects or weapons and make the simple backgrounds.
The paintings are not perfect but I'm pretty happy with the results.
Fandoms represented
Should be mentioned that the comic is based on my own experience in the past with reading things online and meeting people in real life during these 25 years I've lived. So if you haven't personally witnessed these arguments it doesn't really matter.
Naruto vs. One Piece. Japanese comics. Represented by throwing star and stretching arm respectively
DC Comics vs. Marvel Comics. The two big companies telling superhero stories. DC represented by Batman's bat-shaped throwing stars and Marvel by shield of Captain America
American comics vs. Japanese comics. First represented by cape and heat vision of Superman, the second by Kamehameha-wave from Dragon Ball
Star Wars sequel trilogy vs. Star Wars prequel trilogy. Sequels represented by crossguard lightsaber of Kylo Ren and prequels by double bladed lightsaber of Darth Maul. CALM THE FUCK DOWN.
The Comic
Here it finally is:
Hah, that sure was silly.
Final Words
Just maybe instead of yelling about whether strawberry or raspberry is the superior berry, just celebrate how much cool stuff we have available for us? And if someone else likes something you don't try to be happy for them and get yourself something else. And have fun. And most of all love and respect each other <3
In 2012 when I was in full Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) mode. I had watched all the films and even forced my younger sibling to watch them as well. We were super excited for the upcoming team up film. The characters were so fun that even if the film would end up bad, it would still be good time. I know we didn't, but in my memories I see us running excited to the cinema.
The Avengers did not dissappoint. It was exactly what I wanted from a big team up movie. Lot of fun action for sure but most importantly a group of different colorful superheroes coming together and interacting with each other.
Through the years I've seen The Avengers again and again. Always loving it. It still does the job, even if I can see some flaws in it too.
The Avengers Directed by: Joss Whedon Screenplay by: Joss Whedon Story by: Zak Penn, Joss Whedon Produced by: Kevin Feige Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson Based on a team created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
The Avengers is the sixth film in the MCU. When Asgardian god Loki (Tom Hiddleston) proves too big of a challenge for Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D, Fury assembles team of superheroes to fight the battle regular humans couldn't. Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) must overcome their differences and unite in order to beat Loki and his evil alien army.
The Avengers is a blast. Superheroes from their own individual movies coming together and interacting is a blast to see. The actors play excellently together. The action in this film is just blast. Many have described it as taking your action figures as a child and makinh them fight. And that's a beautiful idea.
Avengers Assembled
The most important thing about the big team up movie is seeing your favorite heroes interact. Even though it takes about 30 minutes to get the characters together, it really is worth the wait. The whole cast does a great job portraying their characters and the quippy dialogue compliments their talent.
Especially the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans, as Tony Stark/Iron Man and Steve Rogers/Captain America respectively, is a joy to watch. The verbal clash and the contrast between modern tech genius and a soldier from the past is really great to watch and it's truly satisfying when they join forces in the end.
All the other players do good job as well. Mark Ruffalo takes the role of Bruce Banner/Hulk from Edward Norton and does a really great job bringing certain every-mannes to the role. Scarlett Johansson gets a bit more to do as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, especially the intense interrigation scene with Tom Hiddleston is great.
The Big Brawl
The Avengers is filled with action. It starts with a car chase which maybe isn't that exciting way to start a superhero film, but later when heroes get to fight it's fantastic.
The geekiest of comic book readers have always been arguing whether Hulk or Thor is the strongest Avenger, so of course film has them fighting against each other. Hulk fighting had never looked this good before.
The most important action scene is the end when all six Avengers are together fighting an army of aliens together. It's a huge long celebration of all the work Marvel Studios had done to get to this point. And it's a blast to watch.
Seeing the heroes work together all with their different power sets makes the fight really enjoyable. It doesn't matter whether each one of them has a power set as strong as the other as long as they look different enough. Some use martial arts, one uses arrows and one lightning. The feeling of unity and togethernes really comed through. And it's always great too heroes saving people why they fight.
Universe building
The Avengers is where all the previous films were aiming for. In that sense the film is more about playing in the universe the previous films set up. It still does work pretty well as it's own thing, even though they don't get stuck on who's who for long.
For the future of the franchise The Avengers introduces Thanos in the mid-credits scene. He's only seen for a moment as the bigger bad who gave Loki his weapon and army for this film. Thanos would be teased as the big bad of the whole MCU for years to come, until he finally became the main character of Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
In the comics...
The big difference that first comes to mind comparing The Avengers film and the first issue of The Avengers comic book is the team line up. Iron Man, Hulk and Thor can be found in both, but comic book also had Ant-Man and the Wasp. Captain America joined in issue #4, Hawkeye a bit later and Black Widow way later. Since then all of them have become recurring members with Captain America, Iron Man and Thor being considered the core three.
Team line up had changed a lot through the years and there have been several different Avenger teams and comic book series. Personally I've enjoyed New Avengers by Brian Bendis, Mighty Avengers by Al Ewing, All-New, All-Different Avengers by Mark Waid and countless others.
Like the film, Avengers comics are all about bringing your favorite characters together to interract. Sometimes they don't get along, sometimes they do and it's always joy to see them together and fight their way to victory in the end.
Speaking of the end
Avengers still holds up in my books. It was a never before seen phenomena that made all the other studios want to make their own cinematic universes.
The movie can be viewed as a pure spectacle, but it really is also about coming together for bigger cause. I think it's never a bad time to remind people the importance of working together.
Now next time... I'm writing something else. Watching my favoite films as homework feeled like a great idea, but made watching them and writing about them too big deal. So I'll focus on something else in my next blog posts. Maybe some other films I'm watching or game I'm playing. We'll see.
As always, have fun, love and respect each other.
-O.K.
P.S. No pictures or videos today. I wrote this on my phone. Sorry about the possible quality drop.
//I started writing this about a week ago. Because of reasons my blog writing has had some problems and the text might be bit weird because I wrote it a few sections at a time during few days.
Also I feel like I should mention the death of Stan Lee. Stan Lee made the Marvel Comics universe what it is today. He also cocreated ton of characters we all know now. Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Black Panther and many others. Without him I wouldn't be talking about these films, I wouldn't be myself without his characters. All the thanks for him, I hope he's in better place now//
Back in 2011 trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger got me so excited I decided to do my MCU homework and went to see Thor and started to prepare for The Avengers.
The World War II superhero film looked so much fun for me. Sure I had my prejudices against a hero who dresses like the flag of U.S.A. but it looked fun and colorful enough to look past that.
I really liked the movie first seeing it. It was pretty much the period piece superhero action I wanted to see. Through the years my love for the film has only grown. Steve Rogers, Captain America has become one of my favorite characters in comics and film.
Captain America: The First Avenger Directed by: Joe Johnston Screenplay by: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely Produced by: Kevin Feige Starring: Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke and Stanley Tucci Based on a character created by: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Captain America: The First Avenger is the fifth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's the first period piece in the MCU, with film taking place during the second World War almost entirely. In the film, Steve Rogers, physically weak and little man with a heart of gold joins the army and through experiment becomes Captain America, world's first superhero. In the WWII Steve goes against Nazi science division Hydra and it's leader Johann Schmidt a.k.a. The Red Skull.
For most people the first Captain America seems to be the necessary Captain America -movie Marvel had to make before The Avengers. Many also felt disappointed and felt like everything "cool" happened in a montage. Personally I don't see it that way. The First Avengers does a great job introducing the great character that is Steve Rogers. The film gives the world of MCU more history. It has really nice style and great soundtrack. Action is fun too.
The Boy Scout
Character of Captain America is often seen as too perfect to be relatable. For me the film challenges this view in a great way. It spends a quite a lot time with Steve Rogers before he gets injected with super soldier serum. During these times we see a character whose physically weak, but still wants to do his part in helping others. We see his kindness, his bravery and his compassion. Everybody who wants to help and be a good person should be able to relate to the experiences Steve is going through.
"I don't like bullies." This scene shows really well what I so love about this movie.
When Steve finally does get his super powers and sweet body of Chris Evans, we are happy for him and can admire how he still is able to stay good and not let the powers change him. Steve Rogers is different from other characters, for he doesn't change that much in the course of this film or the others. He's a character who always tries to do the right thing, despite what it might cause for him. I think that's why we need characters like him.
Helping the character come to life, is the actor Chris Evans. He does a really great job portraying what character is going through. His awkwardness when talking to his crush, his confidence and determination when going into a battle, and his sadness at the end of the movie. His performance isn't as "fun" as Robert Downey Jr's as Tony Stark, it's more calm and subtle compared to his fellow Avenger-star. I think it's especially the fun part that often makes people dismiss Evans when comparing the two.
Historical Figures
Captain America: The First Avenger has a ton of side characters helping or going against Steve Rogers. Most of them are left on the side, but few stand out.
Hayley Atwell playis Agent Peggy Carter. She's a British spy and a member of Strategic Scientific Reserve (S.S.R.), group behind the super soldier initiative. Agent Carter helps train the soldiers in program and becomes the love interest for Steve.
Atwell does great job portraying the tough female spy who doesn't give a shit about your sexist attitudes. She also works really well in the more emotional scenes and chemistry between her and Evans is great. It's no wonder she's one of the most popular characters in this film.
Hayley Atwell would later reprise her role as Agent Peggy Carter in other MCU film as well as the MCU tv-show Agent Carter that ran for two seasons. Both seasons of Agent Carter can be found on Finnish Netflix.
The villain Johann Schmidt a.k.a. Red Skull is played by Hugo Weaving. He does also pretty good job, especially considering how much make up is on him in his Red Skull form. Weaving is strong in his performance but not necessarily mind blowing. I think the film could've made the character a bit more menacing, Red Skull is one of the most evil characters in the comics. I mean he is pretty much a Nazi (even though he does distance himself from the actual Nazi's in the film.)
In the film Steve Rogers gets support from "Howling Commandos", a diverse group of soldiers he rescued from a Hydra base. They do a good job portraying the different people fighting in World War II against the Nazis, but they are there mostly for Steve not to be alone in the action scenes and make it feel more like a war movie. I would've liked to see more of them. Especially Steve's best friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) could've used more screen time, considering his importance in the future MCU films.
Captain America and his Howling Commandos. Howling Commandos were led by Sergeant Nick Fury, who later became the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The Good Old Times Captain America: The First Avenger does a really great job presenting the 1940s of the MCU. While I'm not an expert on the subject, everything looks like it should for the forties. The way people dress, the cars, weapons, uniforms all make you feel like you're watching a film about the past.
Film also does a really good job bringing more fantastical elements of a superhero film to the period. The final suit of Captain America fits the scenes and so do the magically powered weapons the Hydra agents use. In the blu-ray extras I also learned to appreciate things like the vehicle design. The submarine in the beginning, Red Skull's big ass car and the plane where the final battle takes place all bring some fantasy to the film without looking like they don't belong.
Another part that really does it for me, is the music in the film. Composer Alan Silvestri did a really good job setting the heroic and nostalgic mood for the film. I find myself humming the themes of Captain America all the time and the propaganda song used in a scene that introduces Captain America -character to the world is just a blast.
During the song the film also does a homage to Cap's comic book suit and the cover of Captain America Comics #1
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer
Blu-ray of the film comes with another "Marvel One-Shot" short film called A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer. Directed by Leythum and written by Eric Pearson, the short film tell's, well, about a funny thing that happened when Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) was on his way to Thor's hammer during Iron Man 2 and Thor.
The film is basically just Coulson stopping to fill up the gas tank of his car and buying some donuts. Few robbers try to rob the gas station and Coulson beats them up. It's a simple but kind of fun scene that shows the audience that the friendly faced Agent Coulson can actually take care of shit. It's a fun little extra, though maybe not super necessary.
Universe building
Captain America: The First Avenger is the first period piece in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It does a great job giving some history to that world by asking the question "what did WWII with superheroes look like?" Sure Captain America is the only superhero in the movie but with that comes the super villain and the fantastical weapons and technologies. It makes the MCU feel bigger and more real. A world with it's own actual history.
The movie connects strongly to previous films in the MCU as well. The object that gives Hydra weapons their power, Tesseract, is said to be of Odin's collection and it was shown in the post-credits scene of Thor -film. Also father of Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man, Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) has an important role in the film as a person who gives Steve Rogers the iconic shield of his.
In later films we found out that the S.S.R. introduced in this movie later became the spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D. founded by Howard Stark and Agent Peggy Carter. Speaking of S.H.I.E.L.D, there is of course cameo by the Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) at the end as the film jumps back to 21st century.
All of these cameos and connections work really well for the film. None of them feel forced or weight down the movie. They are fun things for people who watch more MCU films and for people just watching this film they all feel like they belong.
Post-credits scene of Captain America: The First Avenger is actually just a teaser for The Avengers film. It was one to see that one time in the theater, but has lost it's meaning. Now it's just an add.
In the comics...
The first issue of Captain America Comics was released in the United States in 1940, a year before U.S. entered the second World War. The cover had hero dressed in the colors of the American flag punching Adolf Hitler like a Nazi bastard deserves to be punched. It's interesting that while the comic was great success, it did have lot of people opposing it. The political views (saying that massmurdering racist maniacs are bad) of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby resulted the pair getting death threads and needing to hire security for themselves. I bring this up because it's interesting how people complain how comics have become lately political, when they have been that for at least 70 years.
I read the origin story of Steve Rogers that was reprinted on one of the Captain America comics I own. It only included the part about Steve becoming Captain America. The First Avenger is pretty faithful to that story having the same small guy taking part in an army experiment. Nazis intervene and a new super hero is born. There are small differences like the doctor who did the experiment and the lack of Agent Carter in the comic book. Some of those elements were introduced later in the comic books.
Captain America showing how to greet a Nazi.
Big difference between original comics and film is the character of Bucky Barnes. In the comics he originally was Captain Amerca's kid sidekick, Robin to his Batman. In the film Bucky, played by Sebastian Stan, is same age as Steve Rogers, his best friend before the war and a fellow soldier. This was due to the fact that in modern times showing a kid running around the war is kind of horrible idea. Comics too later changed history of Bucky. He was no longer just a kid sidekick, but a teenager who was trained to become Captain America's partner. He's job was to do the dirty work, like the assassinations and sabotages flag wearing character couldn't.
I haven't read much of the early Captain America comics, but I really like the character. I own around 30 Captain America trade paper backs including works of Ed Brubaker, Rick Remender and Nick Spencer. The character who's always there for people to look up to, defending those who can't defend themselves really appeals to me. This is present in the comics very often, showing Steve Rogers who does what he needs to but knows compassion and has polite, wise manner to him.
From Captain America #695 by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee
Nazi punching good times
Captain America: The First Avengers is still one of my favorite films in the MCU's "Phase 1", meaning the films from 2008 to 2012. The idea of an good man who gets and chance to help people and actually does it really speaks to me. The character of Steve Rogers is the kind I think we need more of and should really look up to. Also in these dark times we're living in, it's always good to see a Nazi getting punched (even if you could debate whether Hydra actually are Nazis or not).
Next time I'll be tackling the last film in MCU's Phase 1, The Avengers (2012)
I don't know shit about music. I only listen to it while making something else like walking or cooking or on a bus ride. So the fact that we have to do music video analysis as a homework is kind of difficult to me. I'll try my best. Here's Legend Has It by Run The Jewels.
Musical Genre
I mean it's rap and hip hop right? The guys are basically speaking to the rhythm of music, which in my books counts as rap. Also their confident and mean attitude plus the fact that they have their own hand sign all scream hip hop to me.
I don't know any subgenres of music, so let's just say that our friend Wikipedia says that the music of Run the Jewels is "alternative hip hop", "conscious hip hop" and "harcore hip hop." Sounds exciting.
Reading Wikipedia I can't comment on the alternative hip hop part. It would require me to understand other music genres which alternative hip hop draws from. I guess more people can make their own conclusions by watching the video.
But the part about conscious hip hop I can see in the video because of it's police and prison themes. The video is commenting on how crime witness is pressured into accusing the people police wants. They also show the growth of prison population in the U.S.
Hardcore hip hop part I can also see because it's defined by angry and aggressive nature of the music. Artists are pretty much such telling how big and bad they are with gun images. Just the way they rap sounds quite confident and angry at times.
All this being said, I'm sure there are people more into music who know all this better.
Gender
The video doesn't really do anything to challenge any existing gender roles. The artists, Killer Mike and El-P look like your average men wearing clothing meant for men. Police officers are all men, probably because usually people first think of a man when thinking cops, and they're supposed to be just cops in the video.
In case of some characters the gender is used to reinforce the existing thoughts viewer and "the witness" -character have. Little girl in the video does look more innocent than a boy would, because of existing stereotypes of boys being more wild. Nun is of course woman. Heroic firefighter is man to reinforce the image of a good man who takes care of you. This is all to reinforce the fact that looks and prejudices can be deceiving.
Non-binary genders are not represented in the video, as far as I can tell.
World View
The video is commenting on the problematic nature of American police force. The two rappers have been taken in as suspects and from the beginning you can tell cops are sure they are guilty. We see rappers going to the police lineup again and again always with different company. We see cops pressuring the witness to accuse the rappers. The guilty can't be the nun or little girl or police officer right?
This is all commenting on real life situations where cops arrest a person just because they look and talk like a criminal in their mind. At the end of the video we see all the "innocent" suspects outside smoking and sharing money, implying that they were the guilty par all along. Video's message in my mind is that the police in America are prejudiced and unjust.
There's also mention of growing prison population in the U.S. This for me drives home the point about how broken the system is in minds of the artists and director. Prisons keep filling up because cops keep arresting people that just happen to fit their image of a criminal. (As a side note I recommend checking Ava DuVernay's Netflix documentary about American prison system, 13TH)
Closing thoughts
I really like this song and music video. I'm not good at listening or understanding lyrics of any song, but just the general attitude works for me. In that way I'm very shallow when it comes to listening to music. It's just about whether I like how it sounds or not. Even when it comes to my thoughts about "Legend Has It" I wouldn't have noticed if my friend hadn't shown me the video some time ago.
So if you feel like I completely misunderstood the video or something else, I don't actually care that much.
Part of our Media Channels and Platforms class was this technology conference Mindtrek. We were given tickets for both days of the conference, 10th and 11th of October. I had never heard of Mindtrek before or attended any technology conferences before, so I was curious to see what was it all about.
Day 1
When I first came to Mindtrek Wednesday morning I found the best thing about the conference right away. While I was waiting for the first lecture I was going to attend I found these incredibly comfortable chairs. I sat down and stayed there for half an hour. It was incredibly soft, but still firm enough so you don't sink in too much. The shape of the chair was ideal for your whole body. I could've spend the whole day just napping in there. Sadly I had a lecture to attend to.
First lecture I attended was three 15 minute presentations about gamification. Honestly I forgot most of it the minute I stepped out of the room. It was not a promising start for my Mindtrek experience. The speakers were more researchers than experienced public speakers. They didn't have the charisma you need when giving a presentation. It felt like school. They probably had done really good research on their topics, but I couldn't tell. After the lecture it was time for lunch.
Lunch was chicken sauce with rice. It was quite good and filled me up nicely.
After lunch I went to another lecture held by Peter Vesterbacka. I wasn't sure what to expect, I was just told that he is one of the Angry Birds -guys. He's presentation was really good. He obviously had a lot of experience with public speaking and he interacted with audience really well. He spoke about taking Finnish education worldwide. According to him for example in Singapore there is so much schoolwork for children that parents have to go to school too just to know how to help them. The amount of schoolwork also increased the suicide rates dramatically. Vesterbacka didn't go much into detail about how he'd bring Finnish education system to these countries, but he had such a good confident attitude that I could really appreciate the presentaton.
After Vesterbacka's presentation I was satisfied and headed home for the day.
Day 2
So there's this micronation called Liberland that exists between Croatia and Serbia. One of the things I was most curious about in Mindtrek was that the president of Liberland would be giving a presentation about the country. Sadly the president himself canceled and was replaced my a Finnish consultant of Liberland.
Consultant wasn't the best speaker but clear enough to explain about this bizarre little project called Liberland. It's a country that had half a million members. No country has recognized Liberland as a state other than Somaliland, which also hasn't been recognized. The most ridiculous thing about Liberland for me was that they call themself a meritocracy. Meaning that the people who give most money to country have the most votes. This made the whole idea sound ridiculous. Legal corruption.
But don't worry they have beach party coming up!
Liberland was quite entertaining. During the Q&A at the end of the presentation, this guy rises and asks "are you serious?". Respect for that guy for asking the real questions. But who knows, maybe after few years Liberland has taken over the world and we all are citizens... (probably not)
Next up was lunch. Salmon with potatoes. I'm not a big fish guy, but this salmon was so juicy I really liked it.
After lunch I saw one more presentation. It was about the A.I. Explaining the basics and talking about how to use it for educational purposes. The subject was interesting but I don't think the speaker was the best. I found myself getting distracted a lot and I don't remember much of the presentation. I guess A.I's would exist in school life so that teachers would have more time for students who need the most help?
Conclusion
Mindtrek 2018 was an interesting new experience. I'm happy I attended to Peter Vesterbacka's presentation and the Liberland presentation. Food was good and I will remember those comfortabe chairs of Tampere Hall's second floor forever. However I don't feel like Mindtrek was exactly relevant to my study path and I didn't really know where to go. Also the presentation ability meant a lot to me, compared to the actual subjects.
So the when I first heard of the upcoming Thor film in 2010 I wasn't excited. The character had always seemed stupid for me. Superhero based on the Norse god just seemed ridiculous and I found the design of the comic book character uncool. Because of these prejudices I almost completely missed the movie.
In the summer of 2011 watching other films in theaters I saw the trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger. That movie looked so much fun that I decided that this idea of a cinematic universe might be fun after all. Because I wanted to catch up with the larger franchise I decided to go see Thor which was just about to end it's run in theaters.
Maybe it was because of all my negative thoughts about the character before actually doing any research on it, I ended up really liking the first Thor film. Through the years my thoughts haven't changed much. I still think it's a quite fun movie.
Thor (2011)
Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
Screenplay by: Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Don Payne
Story by: J. Michael Straczynski, Mark Protosevich
Produced by: Kevin Feige
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Rene Russo, Anthony Hopkins
Based on a character created by: Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby
Thor is the fourth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After leading a reckless attack on Jotunheim, land of the Frost Giants, Thor Odinson, god of thunder and prince of Asgard, is banished to Earth by his father Odin. Odin seals the powers of Thor inside his hammer Mjolnir. Only after proving himself worthy of his powers Thor would be able to lift the hammer and return home. On Earth Thor gets help from astrophysicist Jane Foster and her friends, while back on Asgard Thor's brother Loki is plotting against his brother. (Writing synopses is hard)
The first Thor film is probably most remembered as a story of two brothers. The more popular one learns responsibility while the other plots against him jealously. This is definitely one of the high points of the film. I also appreciate the theatrical tone in the space scenes and fish out of water story on Earth. Action scenes are decent with character work making up for what's missing. The sets are beautiful and the music really fits the film.
The Dude Bro and Emo Brother
Tom Hiddleston as Loki was for long considered by many the only good villain in the MCU. While I wouldn't go that far myself I do consider him one of the best. Hiddleston does a great job portraying the character. His Loki is very likeable smartass. He's this weaker but more clever little brother to larger than life Thor, making Loki more relatable which is something that previous villains in the MCU didn't have. I can also see that these things made many like Loki more than Thor.
That being said, I feel like Chris Hemsworth has been underappreciated in his early appearances as Thor. Part of it might be that he does a really good job at playing unlikeable in the beginning of the film. He really shows arrogance and thirst of blood that Thor has in the beginning of the film. This is enhanced by the theatrical tone of the scenes that take place in Asgard and Jotunheim.
Hemsworth also does great job showing other parts of Thor. As character evolves more kind and caring through the film we see Hemsworth doing great job portraying sadness and regret. I really love Thor's character arc. Thanks to Hemsworth it was one of my favorite things in the film. He does also get to show his comedic chops in Earth scenes where Thor really doesn't know what's going on, like in the famous "ANOTHER!" café scene
Even the Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has later admitted that coloring Hemsworth's eyebrows was a mistake
People and Gods
Natalie Portman plays astrophysicist Jane Foster in the film. She is the human lead in the film and Thor's love interest. She does a great job showing the characters hunger for knowledge and honestly could've been the main character of the movie. Portman also is really good at showing Jane's crush on Thor. Honestly I felt like I exactly knew what her character was feeling when she started to be attracted to Thor.
Of course it's a bit ridiculous that these characters fall in love in like two days or something, but I don't really mind that because it doesn't distract from the story and performances are so good.
Anthony Hopkins as Odin Borson is another magnificent presence in the film. Odin, the All-Father is this larger than life king of Asgard and father to Thor and Loki. While there might be few over the top moments, Hopkins really brings yelling Odin alive. But also gives the character the wisdom and calmness when it's needed.
Characters Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), Jane's colleague and intern respectively, are there because movie needed more human characters for Thor to interact to. That being said they Skarsgård does a good job helping deliver some exposition and Dennings works great as a comic relief commenting stuff that's going on. They also help to keep the film relatable for audiences with all the space theater going on.
Unworthy eyebrow coloring!
There's a fuck ton of characters in this film and because most of the film follows Thor to the Earth, Asgardian side characters are left with less screen time. Especially "The Warriors Three" played by Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano and Josh Dallas are mostly just caricatures of the fat one, the silent one and the "funny" one respectively. Rene Russo as Frigga, Thor's mother, doesn't really even get that. She just kind of exists there. Deleted scenes on bluray did give these characters more scenes but I do understand cutting them for pacing reasons.
Of the Asgardian characters Idris Elba as Heimdall and Jaimie Alexander as Sif are bit more memorable but mostly because Idris Elba is Idris Elba (and his costume is so over the top I love it) and Sif is the badass warrior woman one.
From left to right: Fan- actually you don't probably care...
Three Realms
In the Marvel universe Thor is know as the protector of nine realms. Only three are present in this film: Asgard - realm of gods, Jotunheim - realm of the Frost Giants and Midgard - the Earth. Because this is the first film in Thor franchise and it was important for Marvel to make it part of the larger MCU, the most of it takes place on Earth.
For the Earth scenes Marvel changed an old Western film town into a more modern small town in New Mexico, U.S.A. I probably wouldn't even had thought of this if I hadn't watched the bonus features on blu-ray, they made such a good job at making the small town believable. (Not that I've ever felt any town in any city would've felt unbelievable, but you know...) The small town is a nice change of pace from big cities Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk take place in. It does it's job making the Earth of the film feel like the real world.
The Asgard is the main attraction in the film and I feel like Marvel did a good job creating the realm of gods. On the outside it's this really out of this world space fantasy city, with a huge golden castle. Inside the sets Marvel build like the throne room really feels royal and magnificent. This is enhanced by the costuming which is really good in the movie. The armors, helmets and the capes make the characters feel like knights and kings, but without losing the sci-fi element of them. Of course I could've used even more bright colors, but the golden, royal look really works for me.
I really wished Thor would use the helmet on more than one scene. Of course it's impractical, but such a fun look.
The third realm, Jotunheim, however is the disappointing one. The realm of Frost Giants is very dark and in ruins, filled with ice and snow. This could've been a fun world to visit, but you really don't get the feel of culture you get from Asgard or Earth. Of course the movie doesn't spend lot of time there and Frost Giants are supposed to be a more primal than humans and gods, so I understand the choice of making it the less appealing one. That being said the make up work they did for Colm Feore's character, Laufey - King of Frost Giants, is really good and I wished they hadn't wasted the character in the end.
Poking with Hammer and Spear
When it comes to action, Thor is not one of the best ones for Marvel. I don't think they are the worst I've seen and I'm not exactly bored by them. They just feel either rushed or poorly choreographed.
For example there's a scene where spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D. has build a little facility around Thor's hammer, which nobody can lift, and Thor breaks in to try to get it back. In the scene Thor fights these highly trained agents in manner that feels more like a bar brawl than a fight between professional soldiers and a warrior god. Like I can understand Thor trusting more his strength than skills, but if that were true he wouldn't win these agents so easily.
However the in some scenes the character work helps the action. In the beginning when Thor and his friends invade Jotunheim, it can be fun to see characters do over the top yelling and laughing while fighting. Of course that can sometimes feel too over the top as well, but more interesting still. Also in the last fight between Thor and Loki it's the dialogue between them that makes the scene more worthy (pun definitely intended).
The final battle between Thor and Loki. Not the most impressive fight, not the most impressive coloring of eyebrows, but the almost over the top acting and character work makes it entertaining
Sound of Gods
I'm not a music person. I really don't know anything about music and only listen to it when I'm doing something else like taking a walk or washing dishes. Or writing a blog post, I'm listening to the score of Thor while writing this!
The reason why I wanted to bring this up, is that the music in Thor, composed by Patrick Doyle, often surprises me how well it hits me. Like right away when I turned on the blu-ray and in the menu the music starts I thought I needed to talk about it. The music really fits the film. It has the exactly right tone for the film and enhances the other worldly experience without feeling out of place.
That being said it's not the best music in the MCU and it's not a film score that stays with you. It's a bit unmemorable and not an ear worm that would stay with you through the week. But where it matters, during the film, it really does it's job.
When Thor gets his hammer back and the music rises I even ignore the eyebrow problem
Shouldn't they be sliding down?
This is a weird thing I really haven't noticed in many films. Thor uses a lot of tilted camera shots. Quick googling told me that they are called "Dutch angles" and that director Kenneth Branagh was inspired by the comic books to use them. Honestly I haven't noticed comic books having that many tilted panels and I don't even mind it in this. It's just that they use it so much in this film it's hard to ignore once you notice it.
But it also did make me focus more on the other shots in the film as well. I wouldn't say that there's anything mind blowing going on, but I really did like some of the shots taken straight from above and the ones in Asgard that emphasize the size of the place.
The Consultant
The Consultant is the first of five "Marvel One-Shots", short films created as bonus features for MCU blu-rays. The Consultant is included in the Thor blu-ray and I watched that too for this review. It's directer by Leythium and written by Eric Pearson. The film is about two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Jasper Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernández), talking.
For a casual fan there it's kind of pointless, but a fanboy like me can enjoy it. The two actors get a bit more screen time and if you like continuity stuff, it explains why Tony Stark actually met with General Ross at the end of The Incredible Hulk.
There really isn't much more to talk about here, other than the fact that I really liked the idea of these short films. They could give more screen time for smaller side characters and tell more details about the MCU. But when it comes to first one, it's kind of unnecessary.
The Consultant is around 4 minutes of this with clips from The Incredible Hulk
Universe building
I think it could've been easily possible for Marvel Studios to make this film too filled with universe building. But they understand that while yes, the film needs to feel like it belongs in the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's more important that it works as a stand alone story about Thor Odinson. That being said the film does have it's own share of connections.
Spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D. is around again with Clark Gregg reprising his role as Agent Phil Coulson. Their role in the film is mostly to first make things a bit harder for Thor and Jane, and in the end work as a connection for S.H.I.E.L.D. and Thor in The Avengers film. The S.H.I.E.L.D. does work for the film and doesn't feel forced.
The film also marks the first appearance of Jeremy Renner in the role of Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye, who would later appear in The Avengers as a member of title team. He's basically just an S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent who uses bow and arrows to fight. He is unnecessary for the film, but is nice that he is shown at least for a moment before the Avengers would assemble in the team up film.
Watching the film first time the Hawkeye cameo was bit weird though. Why is this guy using a bow, and why don't wee see him again in the film?
Like always, the film has a post credits scene. The one in Thor was directed by The Avengers director Joss Whedon and it sees character of Erik Selvig joining S.H.I.E.L.D. to study "Tesseract" magic space cube that would be important in later films. Selvig is also shown to be manipulated by Loki, teasing the characters involvement for The Avengers film. It's the kind of fun little teaser of the upcoming films I tend to really enjoy, but like teasers usually, it looses it's effect with time.
Hey kids, it's Samuel L. Jackson!
In the comics...
Once again I haven't read that many Thor comics. Based on what I know from the newer comics and reading around the net I do think the film does justice for the source material. There are some changes, for example comics had Thor using the alter ego and human form of Doctor Donald Blake on Earth. With his cane Doctor Blake would turn into the superhero Thor. This idea is not present in the later comics nor the film. There is a reference to Dr. Blake in the film though, as an ex boyfriend of Jane Foster.
Jane Foster who is a Doctor of Medicine in the comics is changed into an astrophysicist in the film. The change works for the film, as it gives Jane a reason to be in New Mexico at the beginning of the film and gives her personal reasons, other than Thor's hot bod, to stay around.
I've almost exclusively read run of Jason Aaron, whose been the writer for Thor comics since 2012. It's been one of my favorite Marvel comics. Film is obviously made before that, so there isn't connections there really. But in the future I would love to see some things from those comic books, like Jane Foster taking the title of Thor after Odinson himself stops using the name after being made unworthy again.
During six years Jason Aaron's Thor comics have used the names Thor: God of Thunder, Thor, The Mighty Thor and Thor again and there has been two miniseries, Unworthy Thor and Thors (I forgot to put in the picture of the last one)
I want to fly with hammer too...
Thor sets accomplish a lot. It needs to introduce the world of Asgard and Norse gods as aliens to the world. It needed to bring magic and aliens to the MCU. And it needed to be a fun movie that could stand alone as well. For me the film does achieve all of this and while it's not my top MCU film, I keep having fun watching it again and again.
Next movie in line is Captain America: The First Avengers (2011). That being said, I think there was a homework involving music video too, so I might do that first. We'll see.
Have fun. Love and respect each other.
- O.K.
P.S. This was a hard one to write. Is it even more messier than my other texts? Anyway thanks for reading : 3
//All my Marvel Cinematic Universe posts might contain SPOILERS for the films I talk about!//
In 2010 Marvel Studios released Iron Man 2. As a person who really enjoyed the first one I was excited to see more. While waiting for the film to start my friend also told me that Marvel was also making Captain America and Thor films and that the characters would later meet in The Avengers film. It might surprise you that my initial reaction was that it sounded like a lot of homework.
Despite my hesitation when it came to a larger Marvel universe I really enjoyed the second Iron Man film. Thinking back now it feels kind of weird because Iron Man 2 has often been considered one of the worst installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, mostly because it had a lot of universe building.
After eight years I still enjoy the film. I do see some flaws in it and after finally reading classic Demon in a Bottle storyline of the Iron Man comics I've started to wonder what could've made the film better.
Iron Man 2 (2010) Directed by: Jon Favreau Screenplay by: Justin Theroux Produced by: Kevin Feige Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson Based on a character created by: Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck and Jack Kirby
Iron Man 2 is the third film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and second in Iron Man franchise. In the film arc reactor that has kept Tony Stark alive since the first movie, is also now poisoning him because of the palladium used in it's core. While Tony starts to behave more irresponsibly Russian scientist Ivan Vanko who wants revenge for actions of Stark family and weapons manufacturer Justin Hammer jealous of Iron Man's succes start plotting against him. Also S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff is sent to Stark Industries to find out if Tony Stark would be suitable member for the Avengers.
Iron Man 2 might have a bit too much going on in it. For me the mess it creates is still mostly a fun ride though. The style and acting talent mostly carries over from the first Iron Man. There's still similar humor and some of the action is still quite fun. My issues lie mostly in how the poisoning storyline is solved and rushed feel of the ending. I can see some problems in universe building, but for me they aren't as big of an issue.
Old and new friends
Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow return as Tony Stark/Iron Man and Pepper Potts respectively. I think I spoke enough about them in my post abut the first Iron Man. They bring the same quality performance and chaotic chemistry to the second movie as they did for the first one and they are mostly still the same joy to watch.
Don Cheadle replaces Terrence Howard from the first film as James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Tony's best friend and an officer in the U.S. Air Force. I think Cheadle's energy is much better fit for the franchise. Especially in the end when he gets to suit up as the War Machine (think Iron Man but grey with bullets instead of energy blasts) and has a friendly banter with Downey Jr. it's fun to watch the friendship of their characters.
Cheadle replacing Howard addressed quickly in the film
Scarlett Johansson makes her first appearance as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. In the movie she's an agent of spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D. going undercover as Tony's and later Pepper's personal assistant. While she doesn't feel necessary for the story of Iron Man 2, she does a pretty good job for what she's given. Mostly she's there to remind that bigger MCU exists around the film and to have an action scene at the end. Also seeing her excitement for the role and her training stunts made me appreciate her involvment even more.
Director Jon Favreau also has given his character Happy Hogan a bigger role in the film (in the first one he had like one line or something). Happy is driver and bodyguard for Tony Stark and mostly there as a comic relief. He works pretty well in the story and adds to the chaos of Stark Industries employers.
The introduction scene of Natasha Romanoff
Russian Hammer Time
As I said before Iron Man 2 has two villains. Mickey Rourke plays Ivan Vanko, Russian scientist whose father Anton Vanko worked with Tony Stark's father Howard in the 60's. Anton got deported thanks to Howard and because of this Ivan blames the Stark family for ruining their lives. In the movie Ivan builds a similar arc reactor Tony Stark has and uses it to power his own super suit.
Rourke's character and performance has been an issue for many in the film. He looks wild as fuck in his long hair and body full of tattoos. Especially his Russian accent has been criticized for sounding fake. I have terrible ear for accents and personally I don't mind a bit over the top one. So while I think criticizing it is fair, I don't mind it myself. For me Ivan Vanko is a fun over the top character whose wild look might distract from his intelligence.
Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko
The other villain is Justin Hammer played by Sam Rockwell. Hammer is another weapons manufacturer whose more hungry for power and less successful than Tony Stark. In the film he hires Vanko to help him build Iron Man suits of his own, in order to fuck Stark's reputation.
Rockwell really does great job as Justin Hammer. He really sells this character who really tries to be cool and just like Tony Stark, but ends up just embarrassing himself. Rockwell was actually considered for the role of Tony Stark in the first film, which is often in my mind when watching the film. This enhances the jealously of Justin Hammer making him seem like this guy who really just wants to be Tony Stark and is unsuccessful because of his rush to get there.
Rourke and Rockwell work together really well. It's joy to see Justin Hammer trying to sell his ideas and command Ivan Vanko who clearly has his own plans in mind and is only using Hammer for his resources.
Bad guys meeting each other.
Demon in a Poison
In the film Tony Stark is being poisoned by the palladium core of the arc reactor in his chest. The arc reactor was installed there in the first film, to keep Tony alive and to power the Iron Man suit. According to his computers there is no other element to replace the palladium. The knowledge of the upcoming death makes Tony behave more irresponsibly again. For example he spontaneously decides to drive in a formula race and gets drunk as fuck in his Iron Man suit while entertaining his birthday party guests. While doing this he also keeps the poisoning secret from his friends.
All this is actually fine for me. It can be an interesting story arc for Tony to learn be more open about his problems and deal with his own mortality. The issue is that I don't think he does learn much. Middle of the film, after the catastrophic birthday party, S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) tells Tony that he knows about the poisoning and that Tony's father was preparing something big he couldn't finish because of limitations of the 60's technology. This ends with Tony Stark finding the structure of an new element from his dad's old stuff. Then he synthesizes the new element and is cured (there is a laser and easter egg involved so it makes it more fun though.)
Whoo! Nipples!
The issue is that I don't feel like Tony Stark learned his lessons in the film. I'm not against him founding the cure or even solving some daddy issues along the way, but I would've appreciated more clear character grow. In the end it feels like it was all made so that S.H.I.E.L.D. would have a good reason not to accept Tony Stark to the Avengers team they were building.
The reason I read the classic Demon in a Bottle story while preparing for this blog post and rewatch of the Iron Man 2, is because I've often heard that people would've rather had adaptation of that story in this film. In Demon in a Bottle Tony Stark is first time seen struggling with his alcoholism. For me too alcoholism always has sounded more interesting and mature subject than poisoning. Upon thinking further and rewatching the film now I changed my mind though. It doesn't matter whether it's poisoning or alcoholism. What matter is what it does to the character and story and in this case it successful enough.
Superhero Team Up!
As teased in the first film, the movie sees James "Rhodey" Rhodes suiting up as the War Machine. It's a common trope in comic books for heroes to have sidekicks or friends with similar powers to their own. It's one of the things I really like in the film.
Compared to the Iron Man suits, War Machine is much more heavier and has a big machine gun on it's shoulder. While some might have the issue with War Machine and Iron Man being so similar I don't see that as the important part. What matters is two characters coming together and fighting together.
Iron Man 2 does deliver some of that. The battle at end sees Iron Man and War Machine going together against about a dozen Iron Man-like drones build by Vanko and Hammer and Vanko himself in an Iron Man like suit. But he has electrical whips in his suit so it's different from first movie where Iron Man faced bigger version of his suit...right? Maybe not enough. It's fun to see Iron Man and War Machine shoot fight together and fight choreographed decently. But it's over really fast and I can see why it would leave people dissatisfied.
Iron Man one was Iron Man vs big Iron Man. Iron Man 2 is Iron Man and War Machine vs many Iron Men and whip Iron Man.
I would've liked more of this
Universe building
Iron Man 2 is often considered the first time MCU went overboard with the building of the larger cinematic universe. While I do see the issue in that, watching it after all this years it doesn't feel that bad for me.
As I've said before S.H.I.E.L.D. makes a return in this movie. Director Nick Fury appears now in the film itself and not only in the post-credits scene like in the first one. He's there to establish the connection between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Tony Stark, revealing that Tony's father Howard was one of the founding members.
Black Widow a.k.a. Natasha Romanoff is introduced in the film. While I do agree that she isn't necessary for the plot of Iron Man 2, I do think it later helps The Avengers film that the audience has had chance to see her before.
Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) returns for a moment to babysit Tony while he tries to find the cure for his poisoning. However Coulson soon leaves to New Mexico, making his appearance mostly just tease for the next film. The post-credits scene is actually taken straight from Thor (2011) showing Coulson finding Thor's hammer. Marvel has since done the same few times again and while I like a little tease for the future, it looses it's effect when you can actually see the movie being teased.
I guess this post-credits scene can be an effective way to show connection between the two movies
In the comics...
Reading Demon in a Bottle did teach me more about the source material of the movie. For example Iron Man Mark V suit in the film is reference to Tony Stark keeping his Iron Man suit in a suitcase at the time of Demon in a Bottle.
Suit from suitcase
Invincible Iron Man #120 (first issue of Demon in a Bottle storyline) is also the first appearance of Justin Hammer in the comics. I have to say that I much prefer the Sam Rockwell version. In the comics Justin Hammer was just another old guy whose business was suffering because Stark Industries was doing better. Rockwell gave the character much more personality.
Whiplash, a supervillain that uses electric whips and is one of the inspirations for Mickey Rourke's character also appears in the Demon in a Bottle. In the story he is just one of many villains appearing and doesn't really show much personality, so based on that (and only that) story movie is more memorable too.
In Demon in a Bottle we also see Justin Hammer hacking into Iron Man's armor making Tony Stark straight up murder a person. While not as extreme in the film, there is a scene where Vanko hacks into War Machine suit and tries to make Rhodey kill Tony. This could be a reference to the comic book but also coincidence. I'm sure anybody can come up with the idea of these super suits being controlled by an outside force.
The Invincible Iron Man #128 from 1979
The storyline run from Invincible Iron Man #120-128. It's a pretty fun look at the Iron Man comics of the time. I quite liked the art but of course the language is little dated. Should be noted that the alcoholism part of Demon in a Bottle is actually just the last issue of the storyline. The problem is solved in one issue which does feel a bit rushed. However it has stayed in minds of readers all these decades and Tony Stark's alcoholism is referenced all the time in the comics, making it one of the most important issues in characters history.
I still like it
Despite all it's flaws and commonly remembered as one of the worst installments in the MCU I still like watching Iron Man 2. The characters and performances make it an enjoyable ride, even if it is indeed flawed. If it's not for you that's perfectly fine. In the end film is subjective and we all feel what we feel and then try to make sense into those feelings.
Next film in the MCU is Thor (2011) so look forward to me fanboying about that next week.
