After it’s debut at last weekend’s comicon, there was some major buzz about Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming take on Marvel’s resident god of thunder, The Mighty Thor, and based on this sizzle reel it isn’t hard to see why. Dealing in bright, bold colours and explosive action, Branagh seems to have nailed the cod-shakesperian dialogue and borderline campy tone that characterised the classic comics.
Whether (or should that be ‘weather’?) or not Thor’s powers will match those of his in-print incarnation remains to be seen, but so far it looks as though we’ll be in for an overblown cross between Henry IV and Flash Gordon. That can’t be bad can it?
Ahead of this weekend’s San Diego Comicon, Marvel has decided to sneak out some images from upcoming superheroic blockbusters Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger – and they look pretty awesome!
Previously released screenshots show Thor is staying fairly close to his current Earth 616 look (wiki it non-fanboys!), and it’s pleasing to see that his half-brother Loki, the Norse god of mischief, will be keeping his iconic horned helmet on the big screen.
Cap meanwhile get’s a more realistic chainmail-free look obviously based on his appearance in the company’s ‘Ultimates’ comics line. The Ultimates has already proven a rich seam for Marvel’s movie division, influencing everything from Iron Man’s beard to The Hulk’s helicopter drop, meaning we can hopefully expect a surprisingly grim, if over the top take on the star spangled avenger.
While Mjolnir may have a bit-part in a certain massive summer blockbuster out now, Marvel’s god of thunder The Mighty Thor has been conspicuous by his absence lately, but thanks to Yahoo Movies who posted this first pic of Chris Hemsworth all dolled up Asgardian style earlier today, and we have to say…it’s not bad. Obviously using the current comics incarnation as a template, the costume stays very true to the comic-book spirit – although we reckon the cape looks a little bit daft.
Also rumbling round the net today, the Latino review uncovered this first pic of Thor’s big bad – The Destroyer. An enchanted suit of armour that likes nothing more than beating the crap out of wayward Norse mythological types.
What do you reckon to the look – it’s certainly Kirby-esque, but will it look silly on the screen?
What better place than the vast temple of Mammon men refer to as London’s Westfield shopping centre to settle in and check out a movie about a billionaire show-off. Make no mistake, Iron Man 2 is all about the bling.
Unfortunately, it isn’t really about anything else.
Where the first movie gave us a former hellraiser as a cocky, likeable..er..hellraiser, here we get to see all the bits we hate about rich guys like that. All the dazzle, all the showing off -in short, all the style over substance…
News wandering in from the depths of Variety this morning that king of 90’s geek-dom Joss Whedon is Marvel’s go-to guy for the upcoming big screen Avengers Movie. At first this sounded like internet rhubarb based on Whedon’s involvement in the on-again, off-again Wonder Woman project, but the Dollhouse director himself spoke up yesterday, claiming he was ‘wrapping up a deal’ with Marvel to tackle their biggest hitters.
Based on the classic Lee/Kirby strip, “The Avengers!” sees Captain America, Thor and Iron Man teaming up, and early script news reports that they’ll be following the comic to a tee by taking down none other than the rampaging Hulk. The house of ideas also took the prescient step of signing up the leading actors of those properties to a multi picture deal, meaning “The Avengers” would star Robert Downey Jr. (as Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Hemsworth (Thor) and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury).While Smoochy himself, Ed Norton may also return as the Hulk.
It looks like script writer Zak Penn has been catching up on Marvel’s recent Avenger’s reboot “The Ultimates”, tying the continuity more closely into that timeline than the original Marvel universe (Earth 616 to us fanboys), but Whedon, who also wrote several issues of the company’s “Astonishing X-Men” series, is sure to want to give the screenplay a workover.
While Whedon has shown he’s got the writing chops for the gig, “Serenity” remains his sole big-screen directing credit – do you think he’s ready to tackle such a mega-budget action piece?
