{"id":188,"date":"2025-07-18T00:23:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T04:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregneeld.com\/?p=188"},"modified":"2025-07-18T00:24:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T04:24:34","slug":"noah-thor-the-dark-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregneeld.com\/?p=188","title":{"rendered":"NOAH \/ THOR: THE DARK WORLD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I had a great weekend when it comes to the number of films watched (five). The journey began Friday night with back-to-back viewings of Darren Aronofsky\u2019s \u2018Noah<\/em>\u2018 and the latest chapter in Marvel\u2019s Asgardian series, \u2018Thor: the Dark World<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Noah<\/em>\u2018 had cool rock monsters and a scaly dog, two things I don\u2019t remember reading in da Bible, as well as solid acting by Russell Crowe and Ray Winstone (who\u2019s character\u2019s attitude toward the God he knew existed but wasn\u2019t happy with was very crusty and similar to mine in many ways), and an exceptional performance by \u2018Breaking Bad<\/em>\u2018 fanboy<\/a> Anthony Hopkins. Representing the fairer sex, Aranofsky favorite and all-around bony person Jennifer Connelly delivers a credible turn as Noah\u2019s wife and, although a little out of her depth and too prone to tears, Hermione Emma Watson does well as Noah\u2019s daughter-in-law. And, even though the Kronos Quartet playing Clint Mansell\u2019s score sounds like a subdued re-working of \u2018the Fountain\u2019, having a couple of songs by Patti Smith was truly inspired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"10547407_685465214877838_8311257037552061149_n\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of the two, I liked \u2018Noah\u2019 better and thought it a return to form for Aronofsky after the much over-rated \u2018Black Swan<\/em>\u2018 and the insufferable \u2018the Wrestler<\/em>\u2018. I also immediately felt alone in my opinion lol. The story seemed so much cooler and sci-fi\/fantasy than I expected and, even though it lost momentum in the middle, had much richer characterizations than I had any reason to hope for. In fact, I felt the same way about this film as most folks do about the \u2018Lord of the Rings<\/em>\u2018 franchise. These are the Bible stories I wish I\u2019d been told as a kid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"10561828_685459204878439_5856276042209125736_n\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Thor: the Dark World<\/em>\u2018 had a solid performance by Anthony Hopkins, and an exceptional performance by Tom Hiddleston. Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd\u2019s character is light and loopy, with most scenes performed sans pants, looking like he didn\u2019t have time to get dressed after the final, climatic scene in Lars von Trier\u2019s \u2018Nymphomaniac<\/em>\u2018. It was great to see Rene Russo kicking ass in her role, small as it might have been, and I enjoyed Natalie Portman\u2019s portrayal of Thor\u2019s mortal love, Jane Foster, more than her Oscar-winning portrayal of a slightly insane ballerina in \u2018Black Swan<\/em>\u2018. Even though the level of drama and performances fall short of the first film in the franchise, once again Marvel pull out all the stops and deliver a story richer in characterization than it\u2019s source material, with special effects convincingly recreating the look of the original comics. Like any good film in a series, I am excited to see the third installment, especially as it promises an interesting performance by Benicio del Toro.

[originally published 8-11-14]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a great weekend when it comes to the number of films watched (five). The journey began Friday night with back-to-back viewings of Darren Aronofsky\u2019s \u2018Noah\u2018 and the latest chapter in Marvel\u2019s Asgardian series, \u2018Thor: the Dark World.\u201d \u2018Noah\u2018 had cool rock monsters and a scaly dog, two things I don\u2019t remember reading in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-filmspiel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregneeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregneeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregneeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregneeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregneeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gregneeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191,"href":"https:\/\/gregneeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions\/191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregneeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregneeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregneeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregneeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}