REVIEW: Thor 2

A few days post-premier, but I was busy chewing things over.  And generally twirling in a circle and cooing, because did I ever love this movie.  Actually cutting for spoilers for once!  (I know!)


Let's get the big one out of the way first: the rumors are true, Frigga dies a lot.  She ain't coming back.  She's gone, she's buried, and don't worry if you get something in your eye.  I totally did, too.  Rene Russo, how are you so freaking amazing?  I loved how smoothly she lifted the knife from the guard; long has fandom speculated that Loki picked up his general tricksiness from her.

And speaking of...

Loki is going to be the role that Tom Hiddleston is long going to be remembered for.  (You still need to watch The Hollow Crown, though.  Amazing work.)  He hit all the right notes: grieving, snarky, wrathful.  I loved the ambiguity of the ending.  (Please don't kill your father, Loki.  Even though Odin was far more in line with his comics characterization of Worst Daddy In the History of Daddying*.)  An extra nod goes to Anthony Hopkins, who managed to incorporate just enough of Loki's mannerisms to make me go, "Waiiiit." before the big reveal happened.

What I really want to talk about, however, is the characterization of Jane Foster.  Jane never really grabbed me in the first Thor film (DARCY, THOUGH, OH MY HEART), and the spoilers swirling about in the months before the movie scared the crap out of me.  Marvel really has done better by its ladies than other superhero franchises (though I will still not be satisfied until I get my Black Widow movie, damn it), but a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that, wow, it doesn't take much to range ahead of the back.  Hearing that Jane was going to spend a large portion of the movie possessed and passive in addition to the death of Frigga...well.  It didn't not inspire confidence.  My exact words on the subject might have along the lines of, "Oh, fuck that shit with a rusty chainsaw."  (Because I'm classy.)

Yep, Jane remained disturbingly passive while she was possessed.  However, she became possessed in the first place by being Jane: doing science without the first thought towards consequences.  And once she shook off the Aether, home girl rocked her science-doing face off.  She saved her the freaking world, Thor just provided the muscle.  Didn't get her before, but firmly consider me a Foster's Fellow from this point forward.

Now, before I go, I want to make a brief comment on the Winter Soldier trailer.  When Bucky caught the shield (both badass and an allusion to the fact that Bucky does spend some time as Captain America), I might have made a sound.  And then I had to ask myself a very important question: what is sending me to hell faster, being attracted to a currently psychotic assassin, or wanting to molest someone who is technically mentally ill?  I'll let the audience decide.

*He just shoved John Winchester off his shitty-dad throne.  JOHN.  WINCHESTER.