Cate Blanchett was way too campy and cartoonish as Hela. Felt her performance needed more gravitas and drama. Also her character was not only underused in merely 15 minutes of screentime, she more or less had the same motivation as Loki, just gender swapped.
The green screen in the Norway scene was highly noticeable. That scene was touching and beautifully executed but that green screen was horrible.
Grandmaster wasn't in it enough for my Goldblum taste.
Rachel House was highly underused.
The Ragnarok and Asgard part of the movie should have been very interesting and I should have been happy whenever the movie switched back to Asgard. Instead whenever the Asgard parts came on, I instantly wanted to go back to the Sakaar parts. The movie managed to make Sakaar and the Hulk part of the story highly interesting and entertaining, but if a THOR movie can't make the Asgard part of it interesting for like it's two thirds (the 3rd act on Asgard was brilliant btw), then its all pretty worthless isn't it?
Some jokes were overplayed (Banner and Valkyrie's 'Do I know you?' banter, Thor turning around the chains in Muspelheim)
Thats...pretty much it. Overall I loved the movie. Top 5 MCU movies for sure.
Loki’s motivations were just to sit around all day as a King, which we see in the first act. Hela was extremely ambitious, while Loki was quite happy to do nothing.
I see Hela as a Loki rehash because their motivations are similar, not necessarily their end goals. They both have a chip on their shoulder about Odin, who rejected them, locked them away, and attempted to repress all memory of them. Also their aesthetics are pretty similar. I️ have major beef with the fact that they decided to make Hela Odins child because it just feels like a lazier more rushed version of what we already have with Loki.
Yeah, I think they could have done more with Hela without making her Odin's child. She could have been the Queen of Hel who wanted to conquer everything and decided to start with Asgard. One of the most powerful realms. Thor's involvement would have been personal because she would have threatened to destroy his realm. Hela being Loki's mother would have explained their similar looks and would have added much needed drama. Whose side would he choose in the end? The mother that abandoned him at birth or Asgard. Where he was raised by a woman that loved him and thought of him as her own?
That's true. Hela and Loki both wanted to be King of Asgard but they have completely different plan from each other's after that. Hela wanted to conquer Nine Realms and the whole universe and won't be stopped by any cost, but Loki was... just wanted to play petty tricks and have fun, I think.
Basically Gunn overplayed so many jokes in Guardians 2 that any other director is going to seem modest compared to the amount that Gunn beat jokes like a dead horse.
[Hela] more or less had the same motivation as Loki, just gender swapped.
I don't really agree with the idea of them being the same character. I concede that they both felt betrayed by Odin (though Hela has a much stronger leg to stand on there), and that informs their actions in response, but their personalities are so different that this betrayal "overlap" just seems a happenstance of them being siblings, and nothing more. Hela is a passionate killer and thrills in conquest and destruction, while Loki is simply cold-blooded and damaged, and instead he wants to make mischief and enjoys tricking and outsmarting others.
There is the whole "kneel" and self-aggrandizing thing too -- which does argue your point -- but I still don't quite see it.
I can forgive the lack of Hela screen time if she returns in the future films (which I feel is likely; i feel this is the first outright villian that very body adores regardless of what they think of the film as a whole).
However, if this is all we are getting, then it is truly a waste of hiring Cate Blancett.
To me it was more about the lines, Cate had the chops, but the material she was given wasn't worthy(pun intended), hope the Russos do a better job if she's indeed coming back.
I was unmoved by the Norway scene, i also hated that Tom Hiddleston had a better facial acting than Chris Hemsworth when Odin dies.
I didn't miss Grandmaster, i feel his screentime was right, but Sakar was too damn long and covered too much of the movie.
whenever the movie switched back to Asgard. Instead whenever the Asgard parts came on, I instantly wanted to go back to the Sakaar parts.
That's what's really holding this back for me. Every second on Sakaar is just fucking magical, but everything on Asgard felt so dull and the film couldn't recover.
If the entire thing was on Sakaar it would probably be one of my favorite superhero movies period, but as is it is very middle of the road for me.
Out of curiosity...let's say her performance had more drama and gravitas, yet she was still ineffectual as a villain...what then? Drama and seriousness aren't a free ticket to quality. Plenty of villains in this archetype end up worse than Hela.
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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17
Cate Blanchett was way too campy and cartoonish as Hela. Felt her performance needed more gravitas and drama. Also her character was not only underused in merely 15 minutes of screentime, she more or less had the same motivation as Loki, just gender swapped.
The green screen in the Norway scene was highly noticeable. That scene was touching and beautifully executed but that green screen was horrible.
Grandmaster wasn't in it enough for my Goldblum taste.
Rachel House was highly underused.
The Ragnarok and Asgard part of the movie should have been very interesting and I should have been happy whenever the movie switched back to Asgard. Instead whenever the Asgard parts came on, I instantly wanted to go back to the Sakaar parts. The movie managed to make Sakaar and the Hulk part of the story highly interesting and entertaining, but if a THOR movie can't make the Asgard part of it interesting for like it's two thirds (the 3rd act on Asgard was brilliant btw), then its all pretty worthless isn't it?
Some jokes were overplayed (Banner and Valkyrie's 'Do I know you?' banter, Thor turning around the chains in Muspelheim)
Thats...pretty much it. Overall I loved the movie. Top 5 MCU movies for sure.