So I went to see Noggin the Nog
May. 8th, 2011 09:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
essayelNo really. Thor might have had all the glitzy Hollywood trappings but that was basically it. It even began the same way.
YES, see, just like Noggin and I loved that Branagh let Sir Ant do it in his Welsh accent.
I've seen quite a bit of criticism of Thor and it's all perfectly justified. If I had been able to I would have made notes at the bits that made me sigh, giggle, groan or growl. The obvious thing was the cowboys'n'indians division between the Asgardians and the Jotuns, but the general attitude to females irritated me too. We had 4, apart from the 'OMG save the women and children' fodder in the town. There was Thor's mum, Thor's love interest, his spunky female friend who he had allowed in the treehouse and Darcy, who presumably was there to make mention of things like iPods and Facebook and delight the historians in 50 years time. I'm guessing we were lucky to have those and it was noticeable that all of them had the requisite broad shouldered, narrow hipped profile that takes away a lot of the troubling femaleness.
Odin was a bit of a dick wasn't he? And he'd aged badly. Presumably the 'Odin sleep' was going to let him do a DW style regeneration so why - if there had been peace for x-number of years, allowing both the sprogs to mature, hadn't he taken the opportunity to do it. Possibly because he had an ADHD godling rampaging around the place. But more likely because he was scared that the Missis would jump the fence again. We all know from the sagas how she got that necklace by sleeping with Leofni and I think that the screenwriters missed a big trick there.
Are you as bored as I am with the convention in Hollywood that people who think are bad? Of the two I would much sooner have someone who thinks through a problem on my side then someone who just hits it with a hammer. "See the hill, take the hill" is a valid problem solving technique under some circumstances. But if you haven't actually GOT to take a hill, sometimes it's easier, better, less costly in terms of life and limb, to go round it. Of course this intellect=evil doesn't apply to unfeasibly young physics PhD holders, as long as they are blonde and pretty. Scientists are okay, but they have to be careful not to use big words. A good vocabulary also =evil in the terms of the summer blockbuster.
Aaand there was other stuff too but my other half has got up now and is making gardening noises so I better go and help - just now.
Having bitched a bit I must put up my hands to the things I liked:
Chris Hemsworth's muscles and that the direction made him look both a dick and a dork and allowed us not to take him too seriously.
The CGI was pretty.
Everything about Tom Hiddlestone but I wish they'd let him keep his curly red hair.
My total ignorance of the comics that allowed me to snort and snigger over things I was probably supposed to take seriously. Like The Warriors Three? *facepalm* Light relief painted with a BIG brush.
The way 80% of the audience went 'Ewwwwwwwwww' when the girl kissed the hero [there were only 4 women in the audience, the average viewer was an 11 yr old boy].
Bootstrap Bill - yay!!
Agent Coulson - I quite fancy Agent Coulson. He's brave, not unkind, and prepared to do shitty jobs if necessary as gracefully as possible.
That Loki isn't dead - well obviously not, he should be strapped naked to a rock under the Yggdrasil with the Midgarthr Serpent dripping venom into hi eyes except for the bowl held over his face by his giantess wife, apart from when she nips off to empty the bowl, or have a wee or go and have her nails done or something. Then he thrashes and screams a lot. But they couldn't do that and keep it 12A could they? Apparently there was an extra bit after the credits but I was with himself and he'll barely stay in his seat for the last lines of the film, he's so anxious to get away from the rest of the audience. So I did a google for it this morning to find out what happened and am glad that the Trickster will probably be back in another film. It's nice to see Brit actors in work.
So, yes, I enjoyed it despite it's faults but I'm guessing that in 30 years time when I'm in a nursing home somewhere, sitting in my own pee and wondering what day it is, it will be Oliver Postgate and paper cut out Noggin I remember rather than the all singing, all dancing Hollywood version.
YES, see, just like Noggin and I loved that Branagh let Sir Ant do it in his Welsh accent.
I've seen quite a bit of criticism of Thor and it's all perfectly justified. If I had been able to I would have made notes at the bits that made me sigh, giggle, groan or growl. The obvious thing was the cowboys'n'indians division between the Asgardians and the Jotuns, but the general attitude to females irritated me too. We had 4, apart from the 'OMG save the women and children' fodder in the town. There was Thor's mum, Thor's love interest, his spunky female friend who he had allowed in the treehouse and Darcy, who presumably was there to make mention of things like iPods and Facebook and delight the historians in 50 years time. I'm guessing we were lucky to have those and it was noticeable that all of them had the requisite broad shouldered, narrow hipped profile that takes away a lot of the troubling femaleness.
Odin was a bit of a dick wasn't he? And he'd aged badly. Presumably the 'Odin sleep' was going to let him do a DW style regeneration so why - if there had been peace for x-number of years, allowing both the sprogs to mature, hadn't he taken the opportunity to do it. Possibly because he had an ADHD godling rampaging around the place. But more likely because he was scared that the Missis would jump the fence again. We all know from the sagas how she got that necklace by sleeping with Leofni and I think that the screenwriters missed a big trick there.
Are you as bored as I am with the convention in Hollywood that people who think are bad? Of the two I would much sooner have someone who thinks through a problem on my side then someone who just hits it with a hammer. "See the hill, take the hill" is a valid problem solving technique under some circumstances. But if you haven't actually GOT to take a hill, sometimes it's easier, better, less costly in terms of life and limb, to go round it. Of course this intellect=evil doesn't apply to unfeasibly young physics PhD holders, as long as they are blonde and pretty. Scientists are okay, but they have to be careful not to use big words. A good vocabulary also =evil in the terms of the summer blockbuster.
Aaand there was other stuff too but my other half has got up now and is making gardening noises so I better go and help - just now.
Having bitched a bit I must put up my hands to the things I liked:
Chris Hemsworth's muscles and that the direction made him look both a dick and a dork and allowed us not to take him too seriously.
The CGI was pretty.
Everything about Tom Hiddlestone but I wish they'd let him keep his curly red hair.
My total ignorance of the comics that allowed me to snort and snigger over things I was probably supposed to take seriously. Like The Warriors Three? *facepalm* Light relief painted with a BIG brush.
The way 80% of the audience went 'Ewwwwwwwwww' when the girl kissed the hero [there were only 4 women in the audience, the average viewer was an 11 yr old boy].
Bootstrap Bill - yay!!
Agent Coulson - I quite fancy Agent Coulson. He's brave, not unkind, and prepared to do shitty jobs if necessary as gracefully as possible.
That Loki isn't dead - well obviously not, he should be strapped naked to a rock under the Yggdrasil with the Midgarthr Serpent dripping venom into hi eyes except for the bowl held over his face by his giantess wife, apart from when she nips off to empty the bowl, or have a wee or go and have her nails done or something. Then he thrashes and screams a lot. But they couldn't do that and keep it 12A could they? Apparently there was an extra bit after the credits but I was with himself and he'll barely stay in his seat for the last lines of the film, he's so anxious to get away from the rest of the audience. So I did a google for it this morning to find out what happened and am glad that the Trickster will probably be back in another film. It's nice to see Brit actors in work.
So, yes, I enjoyed it despite it's faults but I'm guessing that in 30 years time when I'm in a nursing home somewhere, sitting in my own pee and wondering what day it is, it will be Oliver Postgate and paper cut out Noggin I remember rather than the all singing, all dancing Hollywood version.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 10:17 am (UTC)(Can you tell from my icon which bits I liked? ;) )
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 10:37 am (UTC)Loki is a red head in the sagas I think, too.
I'm tussling a bit with my natural inclinations because the slim, sinewy, fine boned curly haired boys are the type I write by default, and Tom Hiddlestone, thin-lipped or not, conforms very well to that. But the Loki character had so much more going for him in terms of depth and passion than Thor who came over as a bit of a blunt instrument. I have no doubt who would have made a better king, especially from a diplomatic and administrative POV. Odin, had he had any sense, should have split the rule like the pirates did and had one to actually steer the ship of state, like the pirate captain, while the quartermaster led the attacks. I could imagine Thor being a pretty good general but gods help the establishment if he had to formulate policy. You need a Macchiavellian mind for that.
*sigh* I feel a tiny bit ashamed for having enjoyed watching Thor and the Shield agents beat each other up, but not at all for enjoying him get run over twice. Kudos to Branagh for having put in those little bits of independent thinking. Pity he couldn't have tossed the whole comic book simplicity out of the window and given us something a bit more meaty in the way of plot.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 09:49 pm (UTC)(Have you seen the Rome TV series? I could see Loki as an Octavian or vice versa :) )
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 06:36 am (UTC)Octavius was Loki - or a Loki type. I can see the parallel now you come to mention it.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 10:45 am (UTC)I had a panic then, thinking "OMG maybe tom isn't a red head' because there were pictures of him all the colours under the sun, but the one in that article amuses me because Hiddlestone, Hemsworth and Gregg are all red-headed in it.
Hiddlestone, Hemsworth & Gregg sounds like a firm of country solicitors, possibly in Cheltenham. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 09:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 01:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 03:53 pm (UTC)I must show that to daughter, she is a big fan of the How to Train Your Dragon stories, I wonder what she'll make of Noggin?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 06:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 08:04 pm (UTC)That picture of them all as redheads is adorable and I'm all for more red heads on film.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 08:55 pm (UTC)Absolutely. And, of course, in the film we only really get to see Thor's POV of the goings on. You don't get the backstory of how when they were eight Thor accidentally broke Loki's treasured microscope, how he regularly trashes his bedroom, how he got drunk and pissed in the punchbowl at Loki's 18th birthday party, how he slept with Loki's one and only girlfriend, how he usually refers to him as 'Fruity', how he and his friends won't let him join in any of their games. That's what big jock-type brothers do to younger smaller more intellectual siblings.
I see Loki as being a paler shade of grey until it was confirmed to him that actually it didn't matter WHAT he did, Dad was always going to favour the ox.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 09:02 pm (UTC)Though I did get the feeling from the actors that they had history in their minds. I think that helped me enjoy the world, it felt like we were seeing glimpses and this was a big story but lots of smaller ones were still going on. I think that's the hard part with trying to put mythology on the screen well, every big war story has so many other small stories leading up to it.
The visuals worked for me and the sense of how gods and mortals would interact, which was something I was worried about.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 08:42 pm (UTC)Wasn't Thor supposed to be a redhead in the sagas? He always comes across as a bit of a thicko whatever hair colour they give him - Loki is much more interesting.
Thor an' that
Date: 2011-05-10 10:11 pm (UTC)Some really cool thoughts on the film. Not totally clued up on all the mythology so was interesting to read. I knew the opening to the film reminded me of something! I was lucky enough to have a Noggin the Nog video as a kid. Was gutted when Postgate died :'(.
Must admit, the Odin sleep thing didn't make much sense to me either. The timing was the worst it could have possibly been.
Still, glad you enjoyed it and also appreciate Hiddleston being awesome in it. Also very grateful you still read my humble blog. Peace x
Ben
Re: Thor an' that
Date: 2011-05-11 07:18 am (UTC)Enjoy the summer, babe. xx