Retrospective - Thor (2011)

 

This movie is so good, guys. There are so many ways this could've not been great. It could've been all right. It could've been Fast and Furious. It could've been Dungeons and Dragons. It could've been Star Trek. It could've been Excalibur. It could've been Prince of Persia. It could've hit so many tones where it either appealed so much to the comics base that it didn't appeal to widespread audiences, or it could've appealed to widespread audiences by watering down the comics but alienated the comic fans in the process.

 And yet they crafted a coherent, widely appealing, perfectly written, visually distinct tale in less than two hours. 

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A lot of the things we take for granted - and that, in part can now be written off as Marvel having it down to an art - were done for the first time here -

• Well-paced characters with genuine pathos in their stories
• Nailing a different genre while still fitting the tone of its peers
• Awesome costuming that hits the right balance of looking cool while updating it to look semi-practical
• Great CGI to make this fantasy world both real and lived-in
• Well-done action scenes that aren't complicated but aren't stupid
• Using relatively low-key actors as the lead roles but hiring veteran favorites as supporting to buff up the cast
• Springing for a soundtrack that's genuinely great so it sticks in the head right 
• Writing in a way that genuinely lets actors stretch their muscles instead of giving them nothing to work with (as opposed to say, the Star Wars prequels)
• And - this is especially noticeable with the more fantastic Thor - using the wide-lens, fixed-camera style that imitates the comics' panel style so beautifully. 

I'm of the opinion that there's plenty of stories left to be told on the big screen by the vast pool of talent my generation has, and all we lack is a suitably gripping story that gets people interested. Marvel is a great example of a story that does do that, and this movie - which hews much closer to the classic Thor comics than the last few - reminds me that even with the thirty-something great comic book movies released, how much there's still left to plumb. If we get an adaptation of even a fifth of the great writing comic books have (I'm gonna do a list at the bottom), then we would be dancing in the streets for the coolness of the stories we were getting. 

And we will, I'm convinced. But it's not happening yet. But it will be. 

And won't that be great.

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For the sake of auteurs, the non-DC/Marvel properties go first 

• Irredeemable
• Incorruptible
• The Wake
• Miracleman
• Three
• American Vampire
• B.P.R.D.

Now, the superhero properties:

Batman: Zero Year

"           " My Own Worst Enemy

"           "The First Ally

Journey Into Mystery (2013)

Annihilation (2006)

Superman Unchained

Thor (the Walt Simonson-written ones)

Daredevil (2011)

Deadpool (2013)

I could go on. There's a lot of stuff, guys.