As I remember, when Thor landed in that garbage dump, they asked if he was food or a fighter. So when the Grandmaster ended up there, I expected them to quickly decide that he was food.
Pip was a sidekick, placed there for a bit of comic relief from Warlock’s angst-ridden drama.
And in his first scene in the throne room. He had two scantily attired women sitting on the floor in front of his throne. I’m guessing it was a visual reference to Jabba the Hut and Leia.
You can obviously come up with alternative explanations. But that’s exactly what people do when they don’t want to admit a character is gay. They’ll say things like “Sure, we saw that woman she met at the bar the night before leaving her house the next morning. But that doesn’t mean she’s gay. They might have just spent the night talking about make-up or something.”
There is a difference here in that queer people, in both real life and fiction, will take on heterosexual attributes as cover or to fit in, while heterosexual people have far less reason to put on queer sensibilities. Not very likely for the grandmaster, I’ll admit, but I also agree with Miller. The only way that performance could have been more camp was to have hired David Walliams to do it.
Actually, that was a different group that asked if Thor was food…remember what Valkyrie did to them?
Saw it this weekend. Loved it. I don’t know what else to say, it was all great from the cold (or not!) open to the end credits scenes.
Loved the totally Kirby armour stylings of Grandmaster’s troops. Like GotG, I loved how bright and colourful everything was. And the humour. And Korg. And Hela. And Valkyrie. And…all of it.
Liked it quite a lot. Marvel films have been knocking it out of the park visually with Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Dr Strange and now Thor:Ragnarok; so many spectacular environments and action sequences: Hulk versus Thor, the Valkyries versus Hela. I liked the lighter touch, though the comedy was hit and miss; e.g. didn’t much care for the Grandmaster character.
What a cool insight. Thanks for sharing.
Just saw this on Friday. Definitely the best of the Thors, but nowhere near the “best of the MCU” as I have seen some write - certainly behind both Avengers, both Guardians, Spider-Man, the first Iron Man and the Captain Americas in my opinion.
I thought Blanchett as Hela was appropriately menacing, probably the most so of any MCU villain since the Red Skull. I also thought her motivation sounded like a legitimate grievance. Thor really used his head a lot, not just his power.
I liked the inclusion of a Kronan, as Kronans were the villains in Marvel’s very first Thor story. Also liked that the wolf Fenris was part of Ragnarok, shame the Midgard Serpent couldn’t also get involved.
Did anyone but me think that Loki putting Odin in a nursing home on Earth may have been a reference to Douglas Adams’s “Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul”?
I correctly guessed that one of the post-credits scenes was going to follow up on the Grandmaster, but did not see his final line coming - a riot!
And I’m quite happy that the ending of this movie leads right into Avengers: Infinity War.
I definitely thought of that too.
We did get a dragon at the beginning, though. When it grabbed Thor up in its mouth, I thought for sure we were about to get this.
I agree and I really liked that aspect of the movie. That to me was what made the climax great. Thor first tried to defeat Hela in a fight but that didn’t work. So he thought of a different way to defeat her by realizing he could win the fight by destroying Asgard (the location not the people). It was a major turnaround because up to that point he had seen his duty as defending Asgard, both the people and the location. This really was a situation when it was necessary to destroy the village in order to save it.
And then, having figured out what he had to do, he figured out the means of doing it; bringing back an enemy he had already defeated and using that old enemy to defeat his current enemy.
Holy crap did I laugh though. That was probably the single most awful and yet funny at the same time scene in the entire movie.
Banner speculated that he might never make it back but I am pretty sure he was wrong and will be back in future films: Banner/Hulk will always offer more in dramatic and comedic possibilities than just having Hulk all the time.
Exactly. When I wrote way back when it was a very Thor solution to the problem, this was my thought process.
I’m guessing he won’t revert until late in Infinity War. There needs to be drama from Black Widow and the others realizing he’s stuck as the Hulk.
There are shots from the filming of Infinity War showing Banner in the group, and since Ruffalo isn’t wearing a mo-cap suit in them it’s most likely he’ll be in the scene as Banner.
So, yeah, Banner will be back.
For a movie that includes the death of Odin, the loss of Asgard and the destruction of Mjolnir, it was surprisingly upbeat and fun. I liked it. Nice to see Thor show his lighter side. The scene where he was trying to talk a reluctant, “What am I, chopped liver?” Bruce Banner into becoming the Hulk was a riot.
I imagine Thor has to somehow get his Hammer back in the Avengers right?
I’ve always been of the mind that Cap will pick up Mjolnir in some moment of crisis in Avengers 4/5, so hopefully it comes back.