For Branagh, the appeal was all in the story. “It’s a chance to tell a big story on a big scale,” he told MTV in 2008. “It’s a human story right in the centre of a big epic scenario.”
Famous as a Shakespeare-loving multi-hyphenate actor-director, Belfast-born Branagh had spent much of his pre-Thor career crafting loving film adaptations of the Bard’s greatest tragedies.
Which is where Marvel’s stroke of genius came in. Marvel chief Kevin Feige understood that the dynastic struggles depicted in the universe of Thor weren’t all that thematically different from the issues trickling through the veins of Shakespeare’s works. How so? Well, let’s get back to the comics...
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Comments
elgar7
Apr 27th 2011, 7:49
Such a good film, saw this with my girl friend and she loved it. As pointed out in the feature there are really subtle reference's to Shakespeare (particular Henry V I believe?) and that was brilliant step for the characters. Yes it was camp and cheesy (particularly in the town at the end) but heck they recognised it was and made the film purposefully humorous to correlate with this. I give it four stars :)
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Hadouken76
Apr 27th 2011, 14:12
Thats a relief , most of the reviews I've read have been positive. A stroke of genius from Marvel producers to hire Branagh and not hacks-for-hire Mark Steven Johnson and Len (not-so) Wiseman
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yawaramin
Apr 29th 2011, 5:14
A little nitpick: on page 8 (God of Gods), Odin shouldn't be King of the `Asgards', but either king of the Aesir (which is what the Asgardian race is called) or just King of Asgard.
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lolaarcana
May 2nd 2011, 19:35
I loved this film, it was completely entertaining and perfectly cast. I thought Loki stole the show!
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Morituri
May 9th 2011, 21:33
Thor was always my favorite american comic and I waited patiently for Hollywood to give it the treatment it deserved. I was rather unsure about Kenneth Branagh directing this as I never rated him as a director, expecially after his Frankenstein, beautiful looking but flawed and boring treatment. To my delighted I was blown away by a great great piece of entertainment. The whole film was perfectly cast, expecially Thor. I can see now the decision to give Branagh the helm was a brave risk but it worked perfectly, I guess due to the combination of Branagh shakespearean skills and the tight framework of a hollywood studio. I look forward to a sequel.
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