aruminations: May 2011

kenneth branaugh managed to take an extremely cheesy comic book

and give it a very classy, stylish look and feel:

some specific thoughts:

skip the 3-D-totally pointless
there is apparently another teaser at the end of the credits (but we get it, the avengers is coming soon!!!)
chris hemsworth looks great and gives a surprisingly solid performance (did he look this freakishly huge is star trek?)
thank GOD thor didn't have an american accent...
idris elba (the wire) has some serious gravitas-wow!
the traitor was not much of a surprise if you know the comics, and was played a little too sypathetic-i almost wanted evil to triumph...
it's official: natialie portman can't act! or she has a very limited range: she can do hysterical crying, but can't do funny, romantic, friendly, hostile, or even intelligent (a very unconvincing physicist...) in any case, it's official-she's bad! i thought she was miscast when i saw the posters, but all she had to do was be smart and cute and charming in a way that, say, alexis bleidel probably could pulled off with ease...
NP's super-close-up "oh...my...god!!!" might be in competition with devon aoki's "slap that ass!!!" (the fast and the furious) for the worst-written AND worst-delivered line in movie history!!!
jeremy renner (hawkeye in the upcoming avengers movie) pops up for a few minutes-fanboy gold!!! it's amazing how much tension that guy can create with a few minutes of screentime (seethe cafe scene in the town!!)
i'd say it's worth seeing!! story drags a little in the middle, action drags a little at the end, but overall good fun!!

aruminations