The Problem of Thor
I have returned from the land of The Mouse. The family had a good time and needless to say, The Mouse is doing alright for himself down there. I think he's pulling in a nice bit of cash with this whole "DisneyWorld" thing. With a little imagination and some hard work he could really turn that into something big one day.
So with being gone a week, I am crazy behind on just about everything, including damn near all things comics related. I obviously didn't actually get to read anything that came out last week, which means I'm behind on where things are at with the Secret Invasion. Somehow thus far I've managed to avoid all spoilers for a week (no clue how I pulled that stunt off). I did make time to see Iron Man while in the land of The Mouse. I'm not sure there's much more I can say about it that hasn't already been said elswhere. It certainly deserves a ton of praise and many of the guys here at DCR are hailing it as the best superhero movie made thus far.
So naturally with all the good buzz and the opening weekend totals, it took Marvel about four seconds into last Monday to announce that Iron Man 2 had been greenlit for 2010 and a Thor movie in the same year. All that to be followed by "The Year of the Avengers" in 2011 with a Captain America flick and then a fullblown Avengers movie.
And it took about four seconds after that announcement for everyone here at DCR to say "Who do you get to play Thor?"
Yeah, we know. Speculation casting is an incredibly nerdy thing to do. But it's an age old tradition amongst comic fans. You know you've done it with your friends to, don't front. Hell I overheard the same conversation amongst a totally different gaggle of comic fanboys than our own at the comic shop today.
So between names our gang threw out, names I've overheard amongst other fanboys and names I've read rumored around the web I've heard a lot of actor names thrown around. I would say they have ranged anywhere from the very well known and very improbable to the much lesser known but intriguing to the flat out absurd and laughable. I don't intend on sharing any of those names or the thoughts that go along with them here. That's strikes me as a conversation best had with your own group of comic fanboys where you can mock and ridicule your closest friends for their own cinematic visions of Thor. Instead my focus will be on what I see as being the primary difficulties in casting The Thunder God.
Problem #1, "The Build": We're talking about the God of Thunder right? It's kind of important to look the part. And this is a problem that thus far is unigue to Thor. Downey looks the part of Tony Stark, he doesn't have to look the part of Iron Man. Maguire looked the part of Peter Parker, he didn't have to look the part of Spiderman. Ed Norton is playing Bruce Banner, the special effects are playing the role of the Hulk. Thor? In spite of being a God, he's kind of got a whole bunch of fleshy human appendages sticking out of his suit. So assuming we're going with the traditional Marvel version, how many massively tall and buff dudes can you name (wih long blond hair for that matter)? There aren't many "named" actors, that is for certain. And this is why anytime a role like Thor or Conan comes along, you start hearing professional wrestler names come in to the mix. The problem there of course is next to none of these guys have any acting experience whatsoever. I've been a pro wrestling fan on and off throughout my life and I can say that when these guys are working the mic or in the ring taunting the crowd what they do is certainly a form of acting, but not one that I think translates necessarily to the big screen. I can't think of any of them beyond The Rock who have had any real success in film and it ain't exactly like he's been rolling on the action hero roles as of late.
Problem #2, "The Presence": You kinda want Thor to feel like a Thunder God don't you? I don't think you need an academy award winning actor to pull that off (because having an academy award winning actor certainly didn't help Ghost Rider did it?), but I do think you have to have someone who has a commanding voice. I mean Thor literally calls the thunder and lightning. I don't think David Schwimmers voice is quite going to get that done, do you? So this is where perhaps favoring a guy with more the acting skill (or voice at least) over someone with the accurate physique might be the call. I suppose you could even get away with casting the "named" actor to look like Donald Blake (because just about anyone can do that) and then just completely CGI Thor and play for the voice. But even as far as we've come with CGI technology, I find human skin only looks "real" when all the humans are CGI (ala Beowulf).
Problem #3, "The Look": Chain armor, battle helms, and giant war hammers are pretty easy to pull off in flicks like Lord of the Rings or Braveheart, and for a classic norse mythology film on Thor would work pretty easily. But given this is a Marvel comic adaptation, we're presumably dropping his ass in the middle of New York City at some point. So you really have to be careful about how you design the costume so it still looks ancient but he doesn't look like a complete tool in the modern age. And of course, your actor has to pull all that off. These first three problems tie together and culminate in . . .
Problem #4, "The Avengers": So presume for a moment that we don't do a CGI Thor because of the problems inherent in that. That makes him the first and only human appearing amongst the heroes in a group shot. Iron Man? CGI. Hulk? CGI. Antman? Human, but tiny. So CGI. How is he going to look next to several CGI heroes? It's hard enough for a dude to pull off the chinamail and war hammer without standing next to some tight ass CGI effects as your counterparts. Whoever plays Cap will have to do it, but Cap is a relatively normal sized dude, he doesn't have to look the part of a God. This is the point where I likely have George Lucas and ILM on speed dial to make the effects work.
So there you have it, my take on the Thor dilemma. I don't think it's an impossible task, but it is certainly a tall order to fill. I'll watch with curiosity to see how they solve the problem, but I certainly don't envy them their task.
Reading list for the week, and boy is it long:
- Secret Invasion #2 - Normally this would be last but I'm knocking it out first because I figured I've pushed my luck with spoiler avoidance for a week.
- X-Factor: the Quick and the Dead - An X-Factor one shot revolving around Quicksilver. I only snagged it because Peter David wrote it.
- Captain Britain and MI13 #1 - Against my better judgement, I've been sucked in to a new title spu out of Secret Invasion. I'm skeptical, but I wanted to give something with Captain Britain a shot.
- NewUniversal: Shockfront #1 - I wasn't blown away by the first Newuniversal series, but I wasn't run off by it either. Ellis gets another shot with it.
- X-Men Legacy #211 - I've been enjoying this, but still really can't explain why. Maybe it's my X-Men nostalgia.
- Batman #676 - The first issue of Grant Morrison's "Batman: RIP" story. I hope I don't regret it.
- Moon Knight #18 - As much as I like Moon Knight and have been (somewhat) enjoying this book, I'm still waiting for it to get cancelled.
- Wonder Woman #20 - Two DC books in a week, can you believe it?
- Zorro #3 - My only non "Big Two" book of the week.
- Guardians of the Galaxy #1 - They've got a racoon with a gun on the team, how can you go wrong with that?
- Thunderbolts #120 - I've really enjoyed Ellis' run on this book. I bet I'm gone from it when he is though.
- Invincible Iron Man #1 - Matt Fraction + Iron Man = Good (I hope)
- Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas #1 - The man who brought us a kick ass Iron Man movie writes a miniseries in which Iron Man fights Fing Fang Foom in Vegas. I find it hard to imagine this can go wrong.
- Mighty Avengers #13 - More Skrully Skrullness.
Filed under: Comic Movies & TV, DVO Reading Rage
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