Movie Reaction: Thor Ragnarok

Formula: Thor + Guardians of the Galaxy + Gladiator

We are 17 movies into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and one thing has become clear, for better and for worse: the MCU is not a single thing. Every installment isn't the same. Audiences aren't used to that. I think we are all comfortable with the idea that a franchise is one thing. When you see a Fast and Furious movie, you are getting something that's pretty much the same as the last movie, with enough different to keep them honest. To an extent, that's what you get from an MCU movie as well. They all fit into PG13 parameters. They mix action and humor more evenly than DC Comics movies. There's still superheroes in costumes, familiar structural elements, and all the things that the people who hate these tentpoles love to bemoan about. The 17 movies in the MCU are pretty different though. Think about it. The first Captain America is nostalgic pulp and a romance movie. Ant-Man is a heist film. Iron Man 3 is a darker movie and a quest for redemption. Guardians of the Galaxy is slick fun. The Winter Soldier is a conspiracy thriller. Spider-Man Homecoming is a coming of age story. This is a diverse group of movies with filmmakers who actually do bring different things to the projects (within accepted parameters, of course). What I'm trying to say is that it's about time we stop thinking of Marvel Studios as a monolith that reproduces an identical product and start thinking of them as a production studio, like Pixar (except not as good). We can recognize a Pixar movie and see similarities, but we expect some variance from movie to movie. Marvel is doing something similar, except the movies share characters.

Which brings me to Thor: Ragnarok.

Ragnarok refers to a prophecy about the destruction of Thor's (Chris Hemsworth's) homeworld of Asgard. Thor is told about this in a silly opening scene that really sets the tone for the rest of the film. Soon after, Thor's father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) dies, and a woman known as Hela, the Godess of Death (Cate Blanchett) is freed. She takes over Asgard, and sends Thor and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to a far away planet. On this planet called Sakaar, Thor is captured by a bounty hunter (Tessa Thompson) working for a guy literally called the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) and forced to become a gladiator. Loki fares a lot better. There, Thor assembles a team, including - as the trailers have fully revealed - the Hulk, to escape back to Asgard and save it from Hela. It's probably more story than the movie can handle, especially because the filmmaker's interest wavers at pionts. Everyone involved seems to be more interested in what's going on on Sakaar than back in Asgard.

Thor has always been the wing of the MCU with the least clear direction. Quite literally, in fact, when you considered that all three installments have had different directors. Ragnarok's director, Taika Waititi is arguably the most obscure choice the MCU has made yet to direct. He's a New Zealand director, best known for offbeat comedies like What We Do in the Shadows and has never worked on anything even a fraction of the size of Thor. As a result, Ragnarok is exactly what I expected. It is very funny and silly, clearly using the success of Guardians of the Galaxy for the go-ahead to go hard at the comedy. If you go into Ragnarok thinking of it as a comedy movie with action in it, it's much less likely that you'll be disappointed. Waititi isn't as great with the action. The fights aren't very slick. The geography is hard to keep track of. Waititi spends so much of the movie undercutting everything, that's it's hard to buy into any of the stakes when the movie tries to get serious. I had almost that identical issue with Guardians 2, but I didn't mind it as much in Ragnarok, mainly because Ragnarok didn't pretend it was serious as much. Guardians 2 repeatedly went for emotional moments and undercut them with jokes at the last second. Ragnarok virtually rolls its eyes as the serious moments are happening, which works a lot better. It was required sincerity, not force sincerity.

It really helps that Ragnarok has a stealthy good cast for a comedy. Chris Hemsworth is so damn handsome and ripped that I tend to forget that he's great with physical comedy and always willing to play the fool. As a result, he's pretty spectacular throughout this. Tom Hiddleston and Mark Ruffalo are good a getting a laugh when needed. Tessa Thompson does a great Han Solo impression (I mean that as high praise). Jeff Goldblum is playing a role that could only be played by Jeff Goldblum, and no one knows how to land a Jeff Goldblum line better than Jeff Goldblum. That kind of leaves Cate Blanchett as the odd woman out. She's literally off in her own little world for most of the movie and doesn't play anything for laughs. Here's the thing though: she's Cate fucking Blanchett. There's a joke from an episode of Modern Family about how Meryl Streep could be cast as Batman and be right for the role. Blanchett proves that she's in the same category as Streep with this movie. Hela only works at all because Cate Blanchett is playing the role, and she's not just collecting a paycheck either. She actually seems to be having fun with it. Talent matters more than fit in this case.

I'm a well documented Marvel movie apologist. That's a little surprising, because I've never read a comic book in my life and you won't find a Marvel movie anywhere near my top 100 movie list*. I'm fascinated with this extended universe experiment though. I guess what that means is that on a 10 point scale, everything in the MCU I'm going to put in the 4-8 range. Thor: Ragnarok is in the upper-end because of the ease and effectiveness of the humor. As a detour in the larger Marvel narrative, I quite enjoyed it, although I'm not sure I need more installments like this (especially if Waititi doesn't return to direct). The good parts work really well. The weak parts are mostly just forgettable rather than outright bad. Normally, I say that a franchise movie isn't going to appeal to anyone who isn't already a fan. I think Ragnarok is different. I could see people saying "I don't normally like Marvel movies, but I liked this one". Granted we are talking about the very small Venn diagram overlap of Taika Waititi fans and people who aren't normally fans of Marvel movies.

*I think Spider-Man came the closest in the 150 range. The closest MCU movie was The Winter Soldier a little further back, but after 100, I wasn't all that thorough.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Adventures of Robin Hood

The Pitch: Does Errol Flynn look good in green?
 

It's the iconic Robin Hood for a reason. Even though Douglas Fairbanks made a popular Robin Hood movie before this in 1922 and there's been many re-tellings since, the 1935 version is the de facto Robin Hood to anyone except those who first learned of the story from the animated Disney film. I certainly saw the Disney film first, but I'm willing to yield the "best Robin Hood" title to Errol Flynn. I'm nervous to see any of his other films, because I worry that he won't be as good a fit in another part. 

The story is exactly the story I remember. There weren't any surprises. Oh, there's the part when he spars with Little John on the log. And the archery competition. I've seen clips from that scene when he first escapes from the castle so many times in other programs that I already knew every beat of it. Still, I found the movie quite entertaining. There's something nice about when a film doesn't try to overthink what it's doing. I wanted a Robin Hood story and this is the Robin Hood story. It's nice that the Kevin Costner movie got a little darker or the Russell Crowe movie tried to be more realistic. However, the Flynn version is pure Robin Hood.
 
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: I Am Not Your Negro

The Pitch: James Baldwin narrates his work from beyond the grave.

There were three films in the Documentary Feature category in this year's Oscars that were roughly categorized together as being about race in America. They are all very different films though. O.J.: Made in America was a deep dive, stemming from a central character: O.J. Simpson. It uses O.J.'s story/life to introduce an array of topics from the L.A. riots to why you had to be careful about having a black man running in a commercial in the 70's. 13th took an academic approach to the topic. It had a thesis, proof, and a conclusion. I Am Not Your Negro felt the most like a passion project. You know when you watch something that you can tell was edited and re-edited and restructured and rewritten obsessively? Watching this documentary, I can almost hear Raoul Peck saying "I want to make sure I get this right" as he cuts clips together. The result is pretty impressive. Peck let's James Baldwin do all the talking, either through old television clips or Samuel L. Jackson's narration of his work. He's able to tell Baldwin's story while tying it together with the present and never has to add an aside comment to give it context. It's more of a mood piece than a formally structured argument. I like the gut reaction energy it has that the very deliberate choices.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Mad Love

The Pitch: Do the hands make the murderer or the murderer make the hands?

While I'm trying to get better about it, I've seen vastly more movies from the last 25 years than I have from before that. One of the problems I run into is that I'll often see remakes, makeovers, or rip-offs of movies before I actually see the original. For example, I have to assume that the people behind 1999's Idle Hands had to be aware of Mad Love.

I remember hearing a story that when J.R.R. Tolkien first read in Macbeth the prophecy that the forest would move, he was so disappointed to learn that the trees didn't actually get up and walk, that he created the Ents and put them in Lord of the Rings. I assume that was a joke, but it may actually be the logic behind Idle Hands. Mad Love tantalizes the audience with the idea of murderous hands, but really doesn't deliver them, The Idle Hands people could've been like, "Let's take this a step further". This is all conjecture, of course. I'm still having fun thinking about it though.

Mad Love is a pretty unintentionally campy movie*. Peter Lorre makes the movie. His performance barely even belongs in that era, let alone next to the rest of the cast. He's so intentionally creepy that he leaves the rest of the cast looking wooden and dull. The story has a lot of place-setting to put Frances Drake in the room with Peter Lorre at the end so that her husband, and his murderous hands can save her. In a longer movie, that would bother me more. This one is quick and to the point. I especially like how quickly it ends, although I suspect some of that was so they could avoid having to resolve the matter of the husbands hands. It's confirmed that his hands now have the tendency to throw knives at people when provoked. Is that just a thing he has to live with now?

*Which reminds me. Can anything really be camp if it's intended?

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

November Movie Preview

This November feels tame because there's two monoliths in December sucking up all my excitement. When I look at it though, November has the kind of releases that could break some records. Marvel, DC, and Pixar all have movies. Awards players really start ramping up. Comedies are getting a head start on Christmas. There's going to be a lot to see this month.

2017
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2016
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2015

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2014

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2013

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11/3

A Bad Moms Christmas

The Bad Moms are back, this time for Christmas and their moms are all visiting.

Working For It: They are beating Daddy's Home 2 by a week with a similar idea. I really like Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, and Kathryn Hahn and I really like Cheryl Hines, Christine Baranski, and Susan Sarandon as their moms. It's easy to win me over with a Christmas movie and it's nice to see that they are sticking with the R rating. They kept the same writer/director duo, so there's no reason to expect a quality drop off.

Working Against It: I'm a little thrown off by the quick turnaround time. It went from sleeper hit late last summer to having a sequel ready a year later. It's a malleable idea, I suppose, but still. That's fast.

My Position: I still need to see the first movie. The franchise still strikes me as being pretty generic (kind of like Office Christmas Party last year). As much as I love the mini-Forgetting Sarah Marshall reunion, I feel no urgency.

Thor: Ragnarok

Asgard is taken down by the Goddess of Death. Thor puts together a team to save it.

Working For It: They are doing just about everything right for the ad campaign for this movie. The trailers look either really cool or really fun/funny. Chris Hemsworth gets a phenomenal cast around him. Cate Blanchett as a marvel villain is over-casting in a great way. Since seeing director Taika Waititi's What We Do in the Shadows, I'm really curious to see how his sense of humor translates in the marvel machine.

Working Against It: The Thor movies have been weak points in the MCU for me so far, especially the second one. And, I'm very aware of the possibility that Marvel could be masking a mediocre movie with a stellar ad campaign.

My Position: Marvel has fully embraced that they are making action comedies, not action movies with some comedy. Some people get annoyed by that. Personally, I'm fine with it. I'm unreasonably excited for this movie.

11/8/16 [Limited]

A documentary about people on election day 2016 from all over the country.

Working For It: Sometimes, it's just about having a camera on at the right time. I'm pretty sure when this was being filmed, the filmmakers expected it to be a very different movie. Because of that, I imagine they captured a lot of very raw emotions.

Working Against It: It's not that the wound is too fresh. There just hasn't been enough time for perspective. It's not like the election was poorly publicized.

My Position: Maybe as a time capsule in a decade. Certainly not now.

Lady Bird [Limited]

A high school girl tries to get out of her boring Northern California life with her sanity in tact.

Working For It: Greta Gerwig wrote and directed (!!!) this somewhat autobiographical movie. Saoirse Ronan is the lead. Ronan made a believer out of me with 2015's Brooklyn. The movie is being presented as a slightly more humanist Juno (sans pregnancy).

Working Against It: Movies like this can be a tricky balance. They work best when they are light on story, but they also have to be careful about being stagnant and dull. I think this will pull it off, but it's a possibility it could falter there.

My Position: I'm seeing this no matter what. I like too much about it not to.

Last Flag Flying [Limited]

Three Vietnam veterans reunite to bury one of their  sons who was killed in the Iraq War.

Working For It: The three veterans are played by Steve Carrell, Bryan Cranston, and Lawrence Fishburne. It's a Richard Linklater film. That's enough to pique my interest. It's supposed to be a spiritual sequel to the 1973 Jack Nicholson movie The Last Detail, and if their's anyone I trust to make a good spiritual sequel, it's Linklater (See: Everybody Wants Some!!).

Working Against It: I suppose there's potential for this to lean into an overtly political territory that would be annoying. I trust Linklater to handle that though.

My Position: I didn't see Everybody Wants Some!! in theaters, so apparently I don't feel that much urgency to see Linklater's movies in theaters. This looks like a juicy awards player though, so it feels like a lock, just so I can stay in the discussion.

My Friend Dahmer [Limited]

Jeffret Dahmer, the teen years.

Working For It: I do have a Dahmer curiosity. And, thanks to Mindhunter, I am curious about the Muppet Babies years of serial killers.

Working Against It: While I do find movies and shows about serial killers interesting, I am bored with "awesome serial killer" stories. That leaves a narrow space for this film to work in before I find it tedious.

My Position: I'll let someone else watch it and recommend it first.

11/10

Daddy's Home 2

Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell's dads show up to reignite their feud,

Working For It: The first movie was fine, although I had some trouble figuring out its target audience. Wahlberg and Ferrell are good together. Mel Gibson and John Lithgow are fun choices for their dads. Linda Cardellini is back and John Cena might have more of a role. The creative team behind the movie is in tact as well.

Working Against It: The first movie was only OK and the sequel is pulling heavily from the sequel playbook. I'm not expecting a lot.

My Position: I'm happy to wait on this.

Murder on the Orient Express

Detective Hercule Poirot investigates a murder of a fancy train.

Working For It: I haven't read the book or seen any film treatments of the story, so I'll get to view it as a mystery. That'll be fun. Director/star Kenneth Brannagh has assembled a terrific cast, including Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Judi Dench, Josh Gad, Penelope Cruz, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Willem Dafoe.

Working Against It: Maybe if the mystery is spoiled for me the rest of the movie won't hold up. That seems doubtful though. Brannagh isn't a director without blemishes either. However, I did like Cinderella.

My Position: I'll be honest, I was committed to seeing this ever since Josh Gad posted those videos on Instagram trying to get Daisy Ridley to tell him secrets about The Last Jedi.

Roman J. Israel, Esq. [Limited]

Denzel Washington plays an idealistic lawyer who gets caught up on the wrong side of the law.

Working For It: It's from writer/director Dan Gilroy who made Nightcrawler, one of my favorite movies in 2014. This looks like a slight change in tone, but if he can get the same caliber of performance out of Denzel that he got from Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler, then this is priority viewing.

Working Against It: Part of what made Nightcrawler so engaging was that it was a perspective I hadn't seen before. "Lawyer on the wrong side of the law" is pretty familiar (unless I'm misunderstanding something about this movie).

My Position: Gilroy earned my trust with Nightcrawler, and when was the last time Denzel made an unwatchable movie?

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri [Limited]

A mother uses three billboards to shame her local police department into solving her daughter's murder.

Working For It: This looks darkly, darkly comedic in a good way. Writer/director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) is right in his comfort zone. A cast including Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, and Woody Harrelson looks perfect to execute this type of story.

Working Against It: I like McDonagh more in theory than in execution, if that makes any sense. His first two films had all the right pieces, but I didn't care for either when I first saw them. (For the record, I did appreciate In Bruges more the second time I saw it, so maybe there's something to that).

My Position: Frances McDormand looks sufficiently brash to make even the worst version of this movie good enough to see in theaters.

11/17

Justice League

Wonder Woman and Batman assemble a team to defeat a powerful villain.

Working For It: Wonder Woman definitely increased my interest in this after a series of DC misses the last few years. I quite like the Justice League team (Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Jason Mamoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher). I'm wondering how the inevitable reintroduction of Superman will be handled. It looks like it'll be fun.

Working Against It: Like Batman vs. Superman and Suicide Squad, I'm worried that they are trying to bring on too many characters all at once.

My Position: I wouldn't miss it, but, if I could only see this or Ragnorak, Ragnorak would win. It's a moot point though.

The Star

An animated movie about the animals in the manger on the first Christmas.

Working For It: Animated movies are fun, I guess. I like Christmas movies in general. It's not a top tier voice cast (either for A-list celebs or the best voice-acting talent), but I appreciate the likes of Gina Rodriguez, Zachary Levi, Kristin Chenoweth, and Patricia Heaton.

Working Against It: I'm not exactly sure what the studio animation tiers are (Pixar is in the top. Blue Sky is probably 2nd tier, for example), but Sony Pictures Animation is still hanging out in the third tier, and this doesn't even look like their best effort.

My Position: Just as soon as I get to Rock Dog and Underdogs.

Wonder

A boy with facial - uh - differences, enters a mainstream school for the first time.

Working For It: The kid is played by Jacob Tremblay. After Room, I have no concerns about if the young lead can pull off the role. Owen Wilson and Julia Roberts are his parents. Daveed Diggs is a teacher. I think Mandy Patinkin is too. It's a nice cast.

Working Against It: Even in the trailer this movie is going too hard for the emotional gut punch.

My Position: I'm in no hurry.

I Love You Daddy [Limited]

A successful TV writer becomes worried when his teenage daughter starts dating a much, much older filmmaker.

Working For It: This movie is almost reverse engineered for me. Louis CK wrote, directs, and stars in the movie (yay!). His daughter is played by Chloe Grace Moretz (yay!). His girlfriend is played by Rose Byne (yay!). John Malkovich is the filmmaker dating CK's daughter. Apparently it also has Pamela Adlon, Charlie Day, Edie Falco, and Helen Hunt. I'm really on board for this.

Working Against It: As much as I love a lot of CK's work, I'm not blind enough to say he's always brilliant (He wrote I Think I Love My Wife, after alll). Part of what made his FX show great was that he was normally telling short stories. When he moved to longer story arcs, I wasn't as impressed, which then makes me worry about how a whole movie will play.

My Position: I've tempered my expectations a lot, but CK's highs are high enough that this is worth giving a chance.

11/22 & 11/24

Chappaquiddick

The story of the night that doomed Ted Kennedy's chances of ever becoming president.

Working For It: This is a rarity. It's a movie that's getting a nationwide release that I can't find a trailer for when it's less than a month away. That leads me to suspect that it's going to be moved. If that doesn't happen, I'm slightly curious to see Jason Clarke as Kennedy and Kate Mara as Mary Jo Kopechne.

Working Against It: It's really odd that I can't even find a trailer for it. That makes me think I'm doing something wrong.

My Position: I'm happy to skip this, although it's weird how few nationwide releases there are this weekend.

Coco

A boy accidentally travels to the land of the dead.

Working For It: It's Pixar, so that's about all I need to know.

Working Against It: If I wanted to be picky, I'd point out that the last Pixar Thanksgiving release was The Good Dinosaur, which was pretty underwhelming.

My Position: Outside of the Cars franchise, I don't miss Pixar movies.

Polaroid

I've covered this one before. I doubt I'll see it.

Darkest Hour [Limited]

Winston Churchill in the early days of WWII.

Working For It: Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill is enough to cover the cost of the ticket. The movie is on the very long shortlist of possible Oscar players. The rest of the cast (Lily James, Ben Mendelsohn, Kristin Scott Thomas) is very British. Joe Wright is hit or miss as a director (AnnaKarenina, Hanna, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice).

Working Against It: Is there room for another WWII movie from the British perspective in the same year? Or will this come down to being lesser-Dunkirk?

My Position: It's got enough prestige to it that I'll track it down.

The Man Who Invented Christmas [Limited]

Charles Dickens as her writes A Christmas Carol.

Working For It: It's got an Alex & Emma vibe to it, which is a bad movie that I really love. The Christmas spin is nice too. I really liked Dan Stevens in Legion earlier this year. And, as a film distributor, Bleecker Street has been quite reliable the last couple years.

Working Against It: The trailer makes this look like a slightly more polished made-for-TV movie.

My Position: I won't be tracking this down until next December when it shows up on Amazon Prime.

The Current War [Limited]

Edison and Westinghouse battle for electricity supremacy.

Working For It: I think I've been set to see this movie even since I saw an "On this day"on Wikipedia several years ago that said "Thomas Edison electrocutes an elephant". I love the idea of how dirty Edison and the others played in those days. So, the battle royale between Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch), George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon), and Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult) sounds like great fun. Oh, and this is from the director of Me& Earl & the Dying Girl, so I have a lot of goodwill to spend.

Working Against It: Reviews were pretty mixed coming out of the fall festivals.

My Position: There's no urgency to see this, so I could see it getting lost in the December shuffle.

Delayed Reaction: Ain't Them Bodies Saints

The Pitch: What if Bonnie and Clyde were stopped before they really got started and Clyde went to jail.

Normally, before I write up these reactions, I like to check the Wikipedia page if there is one to see if there's anything extra about the movie I want to talk about. For small movies, the average page has a couple paragraphs for the plot. There's a small section about production, another for the reception, and that's about it. Apparently, someone got very motivated for Ain't them Bodies Saints. That sucker is a few thousand words long. I don't know if that's a proactive move in preparation for the release of A Ghost Story* or if David Lowery has a more dedicated following than I realize.

*Which hasn't been released as of when I'm writing this

This movie has everything working in its favor. First of all, it has a cast that just keeps getting better. I knew Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck, which would've been enough. Then Ben Foster shows up. Then Keith Carradine. And there's Nate Parker. Even Rami Malek gets a little part. That's a high hit rate for such a small cast and movie. Casey Affleck and Ben Foster have been in enough movies like this (The Assassination of Jesse James..., Hell or High Water, etc.) that I knew they'd be good in the setting. Rooney Mara is yet to be bad in anything I've seen her in (granted, I didn't see Pan).

I was surprised how little Mara and Affleck were on screen together. I could call it a fun play on the audience's expectation, but it was really just a let down. I got the feeling that Lowery wanted to make the film sparse, which I think works for it. It does get a little too plotty at times when Affleck is on the run to get the full effect of the sparseness though. I liked the movie well enough. I think Lowery's follow-up to this, Pete's Dragon, was much better, however, that's a very different movie.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend