Thor: TDW, Crimson Petal
1. So, I Thor... Thor (shut up, I'm easily amused).
Without being spoilery, I can only say my reactions were decidedly mixed. The awesome bits were pretty awesome, but the meh bits were pretty... meh, and dominated proceedings for about the first half of the movie before things picked up. By the end I was glad I'd seen it, but it was a near thing for a while there. I absolutely adored the first Thor, so I had a lot of goodwill towards the characters and the universe stored up, but I suspect Branagh's direction had a lot to do with that. The way he directs things is perhaps a bit on the overblown side, but never loses focus on the characters and their underlying motivations within the greater story, whereas much of this one felt like a generic Avengers-style "OMG let's fight evil bad guys while blowing everything to pieces - endlessly". Which is perfectly fine if you like that kind of thing, I guess, but it's not what I originally liked about Thor. There were however a few exceptionally redeeming elements along the way, most of them unsurprisingly Loki-related.
Hated the lengthy and blatant infodump at the beginning, which added nothing, since the villain(s) had no personality anyway - like, I personally quite appreciated the similar infodump at the beginning of The Hobbit, because it gave you some insight into the significance of the quest for the dwarves. But in this movie, the "bad guys" might just as well have been wearing black cowboy hats with blank faces beneath, and possessed no qualities or motivations that couldn't have been explained adequately in two sentences when it became relevant. During the first hour I was just kind of bored, although Darcy (Kat Denning) managed to save it a little bit for me - her character sparkled whenever she was on the screen and provided a few welcome moments of humour, even though I barely even remember her from the first movie. Things became immeasurably better once we got to see more Loki (and I'm not saying this just because I like Hiddles - it's more that he got all the best lines and was clearly thoroughly enjoying himself). The Thor/Loki scenes were amazing; I'm not sure even the most ardent fangirl could ask for more! I also very much liked Heimdall (Idris Elba), in another small-but-significant role - the character was pretty cool in the first movie, but even more so here. Erik (Stellan Skarsgard) was fun in his limited appearances. Everyone else was perfectly serviceable, but lacked any particular charm (for me).
2. We had one lone set of trick-or-treaters this year (thankfully we did have a few spare wrapped lollies on hand). The supermarkets really are trying their best to introduce the concept of Halloween, but... nah. I did visit someone's place today to discover she'd carved a watermelon. Apparently they were out of pumpkins *g*
3. Currently reading The Crimson Petal and the White (Michael Faber), and absolutely loving it. Granted, I only started reading it due to enjoying the mini-series, which features Mark Gatiss angsting exquisitely, but you never quite know what you're going to get with the original source. But it's wonderful - not just the story, which is pretty accurately captured in the mini-series, but it's also a playful and incredibly accessible read. It's purportedly set in the Victorian era, but a modern work (2002), and heavily meta on many levels, with a knowing nod to the perspective of the Victorian era as seen from the current one, and lot of direct addresses to the reader, very "come, let's follow her, and see where she's going - but watch your step" kind of thing. Which could veer over into being obnoxious in the way it draws attention to its own narrative techniques and makes explicit assumptions as to what the reader "must be thinking", but I found it really fun. The story itself concerns Sugar, a prostitute who is - unusually - educated enough to read and write, and in between clients is writing a novel (something akin to her own life story, but with more righteous imagined murdering of clients along the way). In the course of her "work", she encounters William Rackham, the heir to a fragrance empire, who takes a fancy to her, and her life begins to change.
(In the mini-series, Mark Gatiss plays Henry Rackham, William's older brother, who abdicates his rightful position as fragrance heir to pursue his higher calling in saving the souls of such "fallen women". He has noble intentions in pursuing the work, but he also desperately longs to impress a dear female friend of his - only to find himself thinking of her in shockingly unchaste ways. Hence the angst, which is gorgeous if you like that kind of thing.)
Without being spoilery, I can only say my reactions were decidedly mixed. The awesome bits were pretty awesome, but the meh bits were pretty... meh, and dominated proceedings for about the first half of the movie before things picked up. By the end I was glad I'd seen it, but it was a near thing for a while there. I absolutely adored the first Thor, so I had a lot of goodwill towards the characters and the universe stored up, but I suspect Branagh's direction had a lot to do with that. The way he directs things is perhaps a bit on the overblown side, but never loses focus on the characters and their underlying motivations within the greater story, whereas much of this one felt like a generic Avengers-style "OMG let's fight evil bad guys while blowing everything to pieces - endlessly". Which is perfectly fine if you like that kind of thing, I guess, but it's not what I originally liked about Thor. There were however a few exceptionally redeeming elements along the way, most of them unsurprisingly Loki-related.
Hated the lengthy and blatant infodump at the beginning, which added nothing, since the villain(s) had no personality anyway - like, I personally quite appreciated the similar infodump at the beginning of The Hobbit, because it gave you some insight into the significance of the quest for the dwarves. But in this movie, the "bad guys" might just as well have been wearing black cowboy hats with blank faces beneath, and possessed no qualities or motivations that couldn't have been explained adequately in two sentences when it became relevant. During the first hour I was just kind of bored, although Darcy (Kat Denning) managed to save it a little bit for me - her character sparkled whenever she was on the screen and provided a few welcome moments of humour, even though I barely even remember her from the first movie. Things became immeasurably better once we got to see more Loki (and I'm not saying this just because I like Hiddles - it's more that he got all the best lines and was clearly thoroughly enjoying himself). The Thor/Loki scenes were amazing; I'm not sure even the most ardent fangirl could ask for more! I also very much liked Heimdall (Idris Elba), in another small-but-significant role - the character was pretty cool in the first movie, but even more so here. Erik (Stellan Skarsgard) was fun in his limited appearances. Everyone else was perfectly serviceable, but lacked any particular charm (for me).
2. We had one lone set of trick-or-treaters this year (thankfully we did have a few spare wrapped lollies on hand). The supermarkets really are trying their best to introduce the concept of Halloween, but... nah. I did visit someone's place today to discover she'd carved a watermelon. Apparently they were out of pumpkins *g*
3. Currently reading The Crimson Petal and the White (Michael Faber), and absolutely loving it. Granted, I only started reading it due to enjoying the mini-series, which features Mark Gatiss angsting exquisitely, but you never quite know what you're going to get with the original source. But it's wonderful - not just the story, which is pretty accurately captured in the mini-series, but it's also a playful and incredibly accessible read. It's purportedly set in the Victorian era, but a modern work (2002), and heavily meta on many levels, with a knowing nod to the perspective of the Victorian era as seen from the current one, and lot of direct addresses to the reader, very "come, let's follow her, and see where she's going - but watch your step" kind of thing. Which could veer over into being obnoxious in the way it draws attention to its own narrative techniques and makes explicit assumptions as to what the reader "must be thinking", but I found it really fun. The story itself concerns Sugar, a prostitute who is - unusually - educated enough to read and write, and in between clients is writing a novel (something akin to her own life story, but with more righteous imagined murdering of clients along the way). In the course of her "work", she encounters William Rackham, the heir to a fragrance empire, who takes a fancy to her, and her life begins to change.
(In the mini-series, Mark Gatiss plays Henry Rackham, William's older brother, who abdicates his rightful position as fragrance heir to pursue his higher calling in saving the souls of such "fallen women". He has noble intentions in pursuing the work, but he also desperately longs to impress a dear female friend of his - only to find himself thinking of her in shockingly unchaste ways. Hence the angst, which is gorgeous if you like that kind of thing.)
