Traditionally, or at least in recent decades, it seems Mother's Day has become the stuff of restaurant dinners and flowers, lavish gifting and jewelry, rather than doing things with your mom that lead to a fun time all around. A while back my family realized that celebrating Mother's Day on Mother's Day was actually far more hassle than enjoyment. There are incredibly long wait times for restaurants, everyone's in a mad dash to find some "perfect gift" and generally the world seems to become just a little bit more angry as everyone tries to make things "just right" and realize that the plan isn't going according to plan. As a result, usually we will take our mom out to a restaurant two days before or after Mother's Day, and also go somewhere "non-traditional" to just enjoy the night since we tend to have fun as a group going out anyway. It relieves a lot of the stress, the intention to focus and thank mom is maintained, and we tend to have a lot more fun overall.
In this case, my mom accompanied myself, my brother, and my brother's girlfriend to watch Thor. (Yes, non-traditional, and yes we came home laughing and having a great time) Since my day started very early and I've only been able to be home for about 30 minutes now, what would have been writing time must be a "day-off" if for no other reason than I am about to fall asleep from the rather long day. Still, it was a day spent on designing new dresses for use in Cherry Blossoms and with regards to Thor, it was another chance to sit back, engross myself in a story, and try to discern what I liked, what I didn't, and why those things worked/didn't work. It's something I do with movies as I find that while I prefer longer stories that books offer, the natural short-story aspect of movies have flaws, drawbacks, and strengths to glean and draw from if you choose to look at each as an examination to learn from. And while I'll try to remove any "spoilers," I do think there is something to observe and take care about in writing and omitting in future works.
In the case of Thor, it is overall a good movie and a good story, at least in my opinion. It suffers, unfortunately from being too short for what it tries to do, and too muddled with aspects of what it has. I rarely picked up a Thor comic (it just never struck a chord with me) so I took this movie as an opportunity to sell me on the idea, fully knowing that some aspects of the movie would not be the same as the comic mythos.
The greatest issues that sprung to mind for me though were Thor's friends and the Destroyer. Again, this is a dissection of the movie, not a dissertation on the comic. It's important to note that Marvel is trying very hard to do something never before attempted: link several movie characters together into an "all-star" movie cast. Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America will join Black Widow and Hawkeye (of the confirmed list) in the Avengers movie. At the ending of this movies, Marvel has included segments after the credits to clue you in on the grander scheme of this arcing storyline. Thor is no different, though comic fans will likely be the only ones to get the clue given at the end, whereas new viewers will just raise an eyebrow and wonder.
This all being said, Thor as a movie comes across less as a stand-alone movie as it does a bridge to set-up Avengers even more. This is not entirely a bad thing, though it does serve in some ways as an injustice to the Thor Character. Iron Man, Hulk, and even Captain America (since it will mostly happen in WW2), all stand on their own, with Iron Man 2 starting to lean on the Avengers movie more than standing on its own. Thor has the same issue Iron Man 2 does of leaning on Avengers, and this might actually be the crux of the problem (though in Thor it is more of a background issue and never truly interferes and interacts the same way Iron Man 2 did).
Thor's major flaw is in too many characters and not enough time to develop them fully. I argued this point with my brother that Thor is accompanied by 4 friends and his half-brother Loki in this film, and the film would do better without the friends in prominent roles. The friends are important in the Thor universe, but in this film, they are a burden and truly given only partial service at best. Because of the short-story nature of a film, the time it takes to develop a character means that for every major character added, more time is needed to establish them, their motivations, and whatever arc they as a character have. It's the arc that makes a character stand out and be memorable. In this case, all 4 friends have no arc, development, or time to be more than just 4 actors to fill up the screen. I further submit that because the movie is meant to build up Thor, these 4 characters suffer even more by effectively being fodder for the bad guys until Thor can come to the rescue. It demeans the characters to be little more than distractions than fully-formed characters. Had they been introduced but mainly kept to the background, the characters would have retained some air of mystery and intrigue and this story-telling flaw would have gone unnoticed.
This issue extends also to the character of The Destroyer. Admittedly, there's little character to develop. However, because the actual story is somewhat complicated and filled with twists, by the time the Destroyer gets screen time, the epic battle that should accompany the build up is rather quickly (and lamely) ended. The Destroyer battle similarly showcases why the 4 friends shouldn't be in this movie as they are poorly used and seem shoehorned in rather than any sort of strength to the plot. When the final battle is set to take place, these 4 friends are further fodder by not even being involved. Because of the attempt to have those friends in it, what should have been a moral dilemma and a choice of conscience gets parceled treatment and lacks the emotional punch that leaves the audience satisfied.
What does this mean for me? It's a reminder that personally I welcome. I often want to have a large cast of characters, but if I am unwilling to put in the time to develop them so that the audience likes them, they are better served removed. Every page of text I use on fodder characters is another page I could use to make the story stronger. It is one of the advantages of a book that you can have as much time as needed to tell your story, but it is also the mark of a good story that you can avoid padding it out if you think more like a short-story in keeping things just a little bit simpler so everyone can follow what is going on. I don't believe I do very simple plots, but I like to think that I keep the issues simply told so that everyone knows what's going on. The more intricate the plot (as Thor truly is) the more simplified elements of the story need to be so that no one is lost. While I admit that there is a great feeling returning to a story (book or movie) and seeing new elements you hadn't noticed the first time around (12 Monkeys and Dark City spring to mind) those should be subtle, there for someone to notice if they want but not focused on all at once.
I'll get back to actually writing tomorrow.
David Barentine
www.wotps.com
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