Point of order, I never said that she sucks as an actor. She just sucked in the MCU Thor movies. Maybe she doesn’t play that role well, maybe she just didn’t give a shit and phoned in her performance… I dunno. But she was somewhere between awful and forgettable depending on how charitable you’re feeling. I don’t know anyone who left those feeling like “Man, I sure could use more of Portman’s Jane Foster in the next movies…”
I’d be more interested if I heard that there was going to be a Paltrow/Potts led Iron Man movie than a Portman/Foster Thor. Maybe it’ll be great, I’m just honestly surprised that, in the context of the MCU so far, anyone thought “You know who we need more of…?”
H’m. I thought I was distilling down the comments of a couple of posters - possibly I was conflating with other stuff I’ve read around the web. I didn’t mean to misrepresent your particular comments, anyway. Mea culpa.
And, again, I largely agree with you on your comments on her performance in the Thor movies; I’m hoping a better role will bring out a better performance, that we know she can do.
I think that Waititi, and Marvel in general, said “this is a good story, and it’s one we want to tell,” and that’s why they went with it. I’m hoping that Portman can summon up the performance that the story deserves.
They should have gotten the actress that plays Brienne of Tarth from game of thrones or whatever to play the female Thor, she has the look of a woman that could wield the hammer of Thor.
At least with Potts they set up multiple prior movies with her wearing Iron Man armor. Jane Foster they spent a similar amount of time writing her out of the MCU.
I don’t have any problem with Portman’s acting; I thought the character was kind of wooden and distant because, hello, nerdy scientist with no social life? It made sense to me.
What doesn’t make a lot of sense to me is how they’re going to ramp up from “nerdy scientist” to “deserves the power of Thor” in one movie without just re-making the first movie.
Perhaps the “Loki” miniseries will lead up to it, as “WandaVision” will apparently lead up to “Doctor Strange”? Dunno. At this point, it’s all speculation.
They don’t need to be an item for her to be worthy; they need to be an item for her to be in the picture. There are 7 billion people on Earth. Some very low percentage are worthy… 1%? 0.01%? But even with a very low percentage, that still leaves a lot of potential worthies. Why would Jane specifically be chosen? If she’s hanging around with Odinsson a lot, then it makes sense: She’s the closest, or she’s the one he specifically entrusts the hammer to once he can’t wield it any more, or whatever. But if they’re not together, then why her?
I’m exactly the sort of person her character should have resonated with. I’m also a nerdy scientist with almost no social life, and I even have the same subfield of specialization. And, well, she didn’t. Her performance just fell completely flat to me. It’s not a dig on her acting skills in general: I’ve seen other things where she was just fine. But apparently, “nerdy” just isn’t in her range.
In the movies, at least, it seemed like one of the main points of Ragnarok was that Thor was Thor, not because of a magic hammer but because… he was Thor. I suppose that doesn’t preclude the hammer making people Thor-like but it seems weird that you’d carry around a hammer that gave you the power of you. It’s like Peter Parker having his spider mojo and also wearing a special suit that gives him the proportional strength of a spider.
Quite possible they get someone else to play her in Thor-form (especially if she’s rocking the helmet that hides the top half of her face), or they could just CGI it as mentioned above.
I like Natalie Portman but agree that her spot in the Thor movies didn’t work very well; she seemed disinterested. I know she didn’t like playing the damsel in distress so maybe being the heroine will get her more interested.
Actually, this is something I’m really looking forward to seeing. She’s a genuinely small woman. He listed height is 5’3" but sells smaller. Making that work will be great.
It’s kind of like seeing Joan Jett live. She’s listed at 5’5" but live she looks absolutely teeny - her guitars looks two sizes too big - but she absolutely fills a room/hall/stadium when she plays. I want to see if Portman can pull the same thing off as Thor. I’m willing to bet she can.
I am really looking Forward into how this will work. And all the Valkyrie fanboys can rejoice, as she was stated to be in that same movie. Let us se how they work the FemThor angle, as currently Mjolnir has shifted a bit in the MCU from being the empowering item as seen in Thor 1 to being basically just Dumbos Magic Feather in Ragnarock. Which I am fine with, but it begs the question how Jane Foster wielding Mjölnir works out. Multiverse is an absolute possiblity, as they lean into it with the new Strange movie.
I admit that I haven’t actually gotten my hands on the female Thor books–I just know about them from talking with fans and stuff.
But what I was reading sure made it seem like her being with Thor had absolutely nothing to do with why Mjolnir picked her. Thor was completely unaware that she was the new Thor. (I also presume that means she looks quite different powered up.)
Also, any “why her?” question would obviously have to be answered in the movie itself. But remember that very few are worthy, and few still are more than temporarily worthy (like Captain America and Superman were). Worthy doesn’t mean “good person.”
Plus the other obvious candidate would be Valkyrie, but she’s becoming her own thing, rather than female Thor.
Plus, if they decide to change course based on the fans thinking they made a mistake, better that they realize that early, when it’s still possible to change course, rather than later.
