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Thor: The Movie Goto Page: 1 2 [>] [»|]

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Scorpy-Sue

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PostPosted: Sat May 07, 2011 9:38 pm


Should I be angry about it? I feel like I should, if only because if The Passion of the Christ were about Jesus murdering Pilate and not having to die or whatever, Christians would be super angry and cause a huge stink and get things changed. If someone reinvented Christianity for a film, there would be a thing. A big thing about it. But when someone reinvents Norse mythology, no one bothers to get upset. I feel kind of offended that Hollywood reinvented my favorite deity into some stupid, arrogant, overpowered heartthrob.
PostPosted: Sat May 07, 2011 9:56 pm


The movie is based on the Marvel comics, so the characters are quite different. I'm not going to see it, but I'll let it go.

What annoys me is a local show here where the gods are like reincarnated as humans. They turn Odin into some pissant little loser who can't get laid. It ******** me off no end and does offend me, because as you say, they'd never even think of doing the same thing to Jesus. Our gods are apparently "fair game".

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Scorpy-Sue

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PostPosted: Sat May 07, 2011 10:02 pm


It's the hypocrisy of it all. And Thor talks in weird Shakespearean English in the comics, which makes no sense. He says "ye" and "thou" and s**t.

My boyfriend just got out of the film, and he's Catholic, and he was raging about how dumb the representations of Odin and Sif were. Apparently all the gods go to fight on Earth, and Thor's the only capable one out of all of them. I guess they're all like humans with big weapons, rather than, you know, gods.

Edit: Also, Thor does not throw lightning, at least as far as I remember.
PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2011 7:43 pm


I actually went to see this. For some reason, I can get by it. I just tell myself it's based on a comic book, not real mythology (Or history for that matter. Wasn't most of Norway Christian by the late 900s?) The fact is, I'm a comic fan and I liked comics before I was Heathen so my view is a bit skewed I guess. Personally, I never liked the portrayal of Odin in American Gods.

As to none of the other characters being capable fighters, actually they were. They'd be dead if they weren't Thor just had a big magic hammer. And in the world on the comics and this movie, no, they're not Gods. They're basically aliens with advanced tech/magic. they get by the inaccurate mythology by saying that people just interpreted them as Gods.

Yes Sif is completely wrong though. No long golden hair, and not the wife, or even girlfriend of Thor. She's a spunky brunette warrior woman. On the plus side, she's actually covered by her armor. I would have expected such a role to go to Fryja myself but there's also nary a Vanir to be seen.

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PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2011 8:31 pm


I know, but the comic book is ridiculous, too. I dunno.

Like I said, the hypocrisy of it gets me angry. But Sif isn't objectified like warrior women are usually (ala Keira Knightley in King Arthur)?
PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2011 8:38 pm


Like I say, I can be okay with it because the comic world is so drastically different. I never read the comics beyond the odd frame - there's one where Thor is telling Spidey about Mjolnir, and Spidey keeps saying "sorry, could you repeat that?" and eventually asks him to spell it. He does - in runes. Spidey says "You know what? forget it."

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PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 6:41 am


I see where all three of you are coming from. Personally the movie was ok. I havent read many of the Thor comics so I kept getting confused trying to decide if something was wrong because they were ignoring the mythology or if it was from the comics. Overall it was fine for what it was: A movie based off a comic that was not real concerned with getting things right.

@The Random English Accent thing- Hollywood gives everyone 'foreign' or 'exotic' an English accent. Including Persians, Greeks and apparently Norse Gods. Its rather annoying as I happen to like accents.
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 9:12 am


Pretty much everything that's wrong with the mythology in the movie came straight from the comic books.

Another plus. While Loki was the primary villain, he wasn't just outright evil. He was conflicted and interesting. And apparently a Jotun child that Odin raised as his own. Once again, strange and inaccurate mythology, though not really any more bizarre than Snorri's attempt to make them all Trojans.

If you really want to be insulted by a comic book's depiction of deities, look up something called "The Goddesy". It will piss off Christians and pagans alike with it's ninja Jesus and idiotic Greek Gods.

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PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 9:45 am


I was kind of bothered by Neil Gaiman's portrayal of the Norse gods in Sandman. But I can see where he was coming from, sort of. Hm.

That's what my boyfriend said about Loki, that he was the only interesting one in the movie.
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 10:04 am


Afro-Dawg
I was kind of bothered by Neil Gaiman's portrayal of the Norse gods in Sandman. But I can see where he was coming from, sort of. Hm.
Yeah, me too. As I mentioned earlier, I had a similar issue with hpw he portrayed thim in American gods. I really hated Mr. Wednesday. It's odd. I'm a huge fan of Neil Gaiman's writing in both comic and traditional books. I also enjoy some of his film projects (the more control he's got the better) but I keep running into problems with his portrayals of Norse Gods and heroes. He was one of the writers on the CGI Beowulf film that, while I like a lot of it, took some big chunks out of Beowulf's sense of honor.

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PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 11:16 am


CalledTheRaven
Afro-Dawg
I was kind of bothered by Neil Gaiman's portrayal of the Norse gods in Sandman. But I can see where he was coming from, sort of. Hm.
Yeah, me too. As I mentioned earlier, I had a similar issue with hpw he portrayed thim in American gods. I really hated Mr. Wednesday. It's odd. I'm a huge fan of Neil Gaiman's writing in both comic and traditional books. I also enjoy some of his film projects (the more control he's got the better) but I keep running into problems with his portrayals of Norse Gods and heroes. He was one of the writers on the CGI Beowulf film that, while I like a lot of it, took some big chunks out of Beowulf's sense of honor.

Yeah, I always interpreted Beowulf as a braggart who told tall tales to the amusement of others. That film was all too serious. Did anyone laugh at all? Like, even after Grendel had his arm ripped off, was there any celebration?
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 11:57 am


I never thought of him as a braggart so much, though the movie certainly did. It was more that being able to tell tales sing songs of your deeds and the deeds of others was part of the culture and a bit of exaggeration is, and always has been a part of story telling. And a bit of bragging and self promotion was also part of the culture. Anyway, the traditional epic is presented as a tale about Beowulf. mot by him.

My problem with the film is that he's not just exaggerating but outright lying. As various points in the movie he's presented as a liar, an oath-breaker, and a coward, and so is Hrothgar. I actually quite like the film on its own merits but not as an adaptation of Beowulf. I much prefer Beowulf and Grendel for that, even if it does end before we get to the dragon.

We do seem to be getting a bit off topic though. Perhaps back to Thor.

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PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 1:08 pm


We haven't seen the movie yet, but I know when hubby first saw that it was coming out he was all excited. I had to remind him that it was based on the comic book, and not the actual mythology though, which sort of bummed him out. I want to see it, but I'm afraid (even with my limited knowledge) that it will end up annoying me if I watch it.

I liked American Gods well enough (haven't read the other one you mentioned). When I finished it, I told myself that if his behavior seemed out of character, it's because the Odin in America was only a "shadow" (of sorts) of his true self. But I'm also not that familiar with his lore either to know how out of character it all was. I was already feeling really stupid for having missed the "big picture" when it was staring me in the face, and I know enough that I should have caught that one. sweatdrop
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 1:22 pm


To be frank the more I think about it the less impressed I am with the movie. Not as a movie about Thor, comic book character or God, just as a movie. It was kinda lacking.

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PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 1:59 pm


CalledTheRaven
I never thought of him as a braggart so much, though the movie certainly did. It was more that being able to tell tales sing songs of your deeds and the deeds of others was part of the culture and a bit of exaggeration is, and always has been a part of story telling. And a bit of bragging and self promotion was also part of the culture. Anyway, the traditional epic is presented as a tale about Beowulf. mot by him.

Oh definitely. I guess by braggart I mean a boastful young man who exaggerated a lot and everyone had a good time listening to him.

I guess Thor the movie bothers me because too many people don't really know where the mythology ends and the movie begins. Like, messing with Jesus is a little bit okay (but not really), because everyone knows the "truth" of him. But with Thor, people just mess with Norse mythology because "it's dead" and "no one believes in that anymore, right?" And no one fusses.
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