Tag: Thor

Deano’s answer to: “What are the chances of a Hawkeye feature film?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

From the original question – Hawkeye has an incredible background and seems like the perfect candidate for a grittier darker film. Thoughts?

Hawkeye - Can he handle a movie?
Ready, Aim, Wait - you brought a bow and arrow for the HULK?!?

You know who else had a nice dark, gritty, incredible background?

  • Daredevil
  • Ghost Rider
  • The Punisher
  • Man-Thing (no, really!)
  • Wolverine

Uh-oh(*).

Historically, Marvel’s “dark knights”, if you will, have had a problem: how do you make money on the movie?

  • Because it’s a licensed film, you can’t go too low budget, or you’ll hurt the overall brand.
  • If you aim too wide, especially in terms of movie ratings, a lot of the grit/pathos that makes the character interesting is lost.
  • Related, if you focus too much on star power, what ends up on the screen is Ben Affleck in red leather, rather than Matt Murdock, Daredevil.
  • Of course, stars are bad for other reasons… It might be easier to get a fan of the title to sign on, but then they may use their leverage to screw up the script or direction because they “know better” – looking at you, Nic Cage!
  • Sometimes Hollywood gets lost in the origin issue – how can you tell fun new stories about the Punisher without first doing a “set up” piece about how he became a deranged homicidal maniac?
  • If you ignore the origin and just tell the story, “won’t all the non-fans get lost/turned off?” – this is not entirely unfounded… A lot of Marvel characters, especially, depend on their origin and background in the larger universe to be interesting. The Punisher by any other name… Is a dude with guns killing bad guys. That becomes a “red ocean” problem, where you suddenly ALSO need to just make a kick-ass vigilante action movie to compete with the rest of that genre, on top of everything else.

For these and other reasons, comic book movies tend to have a lot working against them from the very outset… And if the comic title in question isn’t a “household name”, well, for most producers and studios, it’s just too risky to do as a tentpole/blockbuster.

On the brighter side – this is, in large part, why Marvel pulled out of its production deal with Sony in order to found their own studio – use your own cash, make your own rules. And now that they are “free”, their execution has been much better… They will have released the entire “Avengers Core Team” as solo films by the end of 2011 – Hulk, Thor, Cap, and the Tin Can. With the exception of Captain America (not yet released), performance globally has been from decent to astounding.

The next step is to bring them all together in an eye-exploding orgy of hopefully-not-suck called The Avengers, in 2012. That movie should also see an expanded list of tier-two ‘masks’ like Hawkeye getting a bit of screen time… If done right, that might tip such heroes into the household name category, enabling them to star in their own films, gritty or otherwise.

To say the least, there are a lot of “what if’s” involved, and only time will tell. But it’s certainly fair to say that Marvel has learned an important lesson about fully-outsourcing its product to Hollywood, and that while there are likely to be continued misses down the road (Ghost Rider II, whaaaa?!?), the batting averages for the next 20 years are almost going to be better than the last 20.

(* Daniel Shi, like some kind of mothafucka trying to ice skate uphill, pointed out that I left Blade off my list, but I had good reason: the titular hero, while dark and gritty as the rest, had a pretty good “daywalk” at the box office for a movie series of its time – $415,098,928 grossed in theaters across 3 films, with additional revenues from domestic and international licensing, digital, and DVD sales. For more details on the Blade trilogy, check in with my good buddy Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bla… )

This answer originally appeared on Quora: What are the chances of a Hawkeye feature film?

Deano’s answer to: “In Thor, does Thor’s power originate entirely from his hammer? Or were there other powers that Odin stripped from him?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

Thor’s power originates within Thor. He’s the God of Thunder, not the Dude Who Carries Thunder-God-Power-Hammer.

That said, magic is a funny thing, as are curses. In Thor’s case, his own powers are “removed” until he can pick up the hammer, and he can’t pick up the hammer until… Well, spoilers, you know…

Anyway, as for Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer’s name) itself, the powers are basically agreed to be the following:

  • It’s a very good hammer, good at hammering just about anything, really really hard (basically as hard as Thor wants it to hit).
  • When thrown, it will unerringly return to Thor’s hand.
  • When Thor aims it, it doesn’t miss.

Between the movie and the comics, there are a few other powers hinted at, though I would submit that the majority of these (like teleportation) are actually particular manifestations of one or more of the above powers combined with Thor’s own (say, unerringly aiming the hammer at a point halfway across the galaxy, then throwing it so hard it travels there instantaneously).

In a nutshell, it’s a really big(*) hammer, that allows someone with god-level powers to actually do even more damage when he hits something – or, conversely, a lot LESS, based on his desires.

When you think about it, it’d be pretty ridiculous for a god to carry around weapons that didn’t make him even more powerful.

(* It also has, according to Norse mythology, the ability to shrink to a pocketable size when not in use)

This answer originally appeared on Quora: In Thor, does Thor’s power originate entirely from his hammer? Or were there other powers that Odin stripped from him?

Deano’s answer to: “In Thor, why does the Destroyer walk in such a hip-swiveling sexy manner?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

After much researching online, and despite counter-evidence in the form of IMDb listing, it seems that the motion capture for The Destroyer was done by Joseph Gatt:
“I’m a lover, not a Destroyer…”

Though Gatt’s IMDb entry for Thor (2011 movie) listed him as Frost Giant Grundroth several weeks before the release, in several interviews Gatt gave before the movie’s release, he made it clear that his role was “top secret”, and that all he could say was the following:

  • He’s a villain
  • Action-oriented role
  • Gives Thor lots of trouble
  • Has scenes with Loki
  • Has sweet weapons
  • Is an Asgardian warrior

The last three items make it much clearer – the only ‘Asgardian warrior’ (Frost Giants are… uh… Juntenheimers?) who gives Thor trouble, who also has scenes with Loki… Well, he’s either Odin or the Destroyer. And last I checked, the guy in the photo above doesn’t look nearly cut enough to be Anthony Hopkins, so…

As far as the “beefcake factor” with female viewers… I think the prospect of a crazily-morphable unstoppable sexy robot eunuch is a fantasy that spans gender identity, so in that sense, no, it’s probably not aimed at the ladies (exclusively).

Finally, none of the data at IMDb, Gatt’s website josephgatt.com, or Wikipedia reveals the specific sexy-quotient of Mr. Gatt’s stride for comparison. Intrepid researchers are undaunted, however, and are looking for copies of the God of War video game series for possible corroboration.

This answer originally appeared on Quora: In Thor, why does the Destroyer walk in such a hip-swiveling sexy manner?

Deano’s answer to: “In Thor, what are the 9 realms? How do they inter-relate? What’s the deal with the tree that Thor draws for Jane?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

The Nine Realms, or Nine Worlds, or Nine Planes are:

Alfheim, Asgard, Hel, Jotunheim, Midgard (Earth), Muspelheim, Nidavellir, Svartalfheim, and Vanaheim(*).

The Big Tree is called Yggdrasil.

As for explaining what they are, and their inter-relation – especially in the context of the Marvel version of Thor – I could grab my crayons and do my best, or simply link to the excellent Wikipedia entry on the subject here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asg…

(* Am I really the only one who had to memorize this in the third grade?!? )

This answer originally appeared on Quora: In Thor, what are the 9 realms? How do they inter-relate? What’s the deal with the tree that Thor draws for Jane?

Deano’s answer to: “Was Thor shot in 3D natively, or 3D was added in post?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

Thor is a 3D conversion, not an original 3D production.

This is confirmed by multiple sources:

The quality level is said to be vastly superior to Clash of the Titans – but since none of the movie was shot with 3D in mind, the special glasses you wear will do more to take you out of the experience than make you feel like a part of it (“hey look, a FLYING HAMMER that goes… uh… SIDEWAYS, in 3D!”).

If you want to be cynical, you could say that it’s basically a money grab, and the reviews from those who have seen both say that the resolution and colors/blacks onscreen are truer and more vibrant in 2D… But if you enjoy the 3D experience generally, and don’t need excessive screen-popping action, it’s a good way to ensure a less crowded theater when you go to see it.

Was Thor shot in 3D natively, or 3D was added in post?