A Personal Note to Kevin Feige

 

Personal Note to Kevin Feige,

People around me know me to be a fan of Marvel. Both in terms of the comics as well as the cinematic output. And yes, I acknowledge that. I do think Marvel presents us with Real Cinema.

Martin Scorsese said these films are not real cinema. Well, I can understand that from a celebrated filmmaker who has absolutely no background in comics. And I am also not offended by it. You see, having a background in comics also means you have read quite a few. And I have.

I have read a lot of the original Stan Lee & Jack Kirby Marvel Comics. They are now quite special of course, not only because they are worth a lot. But when Stan and Jack rebuilt MARVEL from scratch in the early 1960s, they created new worlds, new characters, new futures, new hopes. And with good stories and humor, you do get a long ways.

And of course the great art by people like Jack Kirby and later John Buscema. Those issues are very precious to me now, even if you can tell there are better stories and lesser ones. With some exceptions, I also find that Marvel has been able to really translate the comics to film rather well. With some exceptions.

I am not really that much of a fan of where Spider-Man is going now. Killing off Aunt May in my book is a BIG MISTAKE. But that's one thing. There's so much more.

But I do have a slight note to make with THOR: LOVE and THUNDER. You see, Thor is a really powerful God of Thunder and makes a formidable warrior. In hundreds of comics he has been seen fighting villains in ENDGAME style battles. Drawn by Kirby or Buscema, this looked awesome. 

But with Taika Waititi at the helm, you only get THOR the buffoon. Thor, the Butt of the Joke God. I also had some big notes to give about the earlier THOR: RAGNAROK. I objected to the PLANET HULK storyline being downsized to a meagre 20 minutes in this film, while this could have been a Great Mini-Series for the HULK. It could then have been followed with a film about WORLD WAR HULK that could have been awesome !!! But no, Taika Waititi was selected to direct and he chose to inject humor. 

I don't oppose humor but there is STAR TREK IV THE VOYAGE HOME humor (refined, sophisticated and genuinely funny) and there is STAR TREK V THE FINAL FRONTIER humor (dumb, crass, silly shit) and Waititi chose the latter to be used on THOR and make him the butt of the joke. Okay. The film was funny. 

But destroying all of ASGARD so fast??? We had hardly seen any of it in the earlier 2 films. Okay, at moments the film was exciting. But Thor was downgraded from a GOD to a Joke. I objected to that.

And now we have THOR: LOVE and THUNDER, again directed by Taika Waititi. And again, Thor is being treated as a comedy star, as a cosmic powered Mr. Bean ! 

I will grant that the Storyline for JANE FOSTER was well handled. I shed a tear for her when she passed into Walhalla. And Christian Bale is wonderfully fresh as a very different kind of Villain ! He was very good ! My Compliments to both Christian Bale and Natalie Portman: they represent the GOOD in this film.

But the jokes have worn off. And as for Russell Crowe as ZEUS, this was a horrendous skit, not even worthy of a Saturday Night Special comedy show. Enough with those goats already !

Mr. Feige, the numbers and the reviews are in for this film. The jokes have run their course. Once was enough. Do we have to keep kicking the dead dog? 

May we now PLEASE see THOR come back in a SERIOUS movie with battle scenes equalling or surpassing those of AVENGERS: ENDGAME, please ? Bring in PLUTO and his hordes to invade Manhattan or have Ulik come in with his trolls to invade New Asgard ! Have BETA RAY BILL fight alongside THOR against Zarrko, The Man From Tomorrow !! Sure, HERCULES could also fight Thor in a movie but in the end, they end up as FRIENDS so that is not what the whole film should be about.

This is what THOR is created for: GLORIOUS BATTLES FOUGHT WELL ON AWESOME BATTLEFIELDS ( be that on Earth or on another planet ). Come to think of it, THOR would make an awesome Klingon. 

But PLEASE don't let THOR become the Joke of the Marvel Cinematic Universe !

Thank You

Armentus