Welcome to the Comparative Opinions podcast! Sorry for the late podcast, but we wanted to still get in an episode this week – from our Marvel Cinematic Universe rewatch, before Avengers: Infinity War hits this weekend! Join hosts Holly and David as they discuss Marvel Phase 2!
Comparative Opinions is a weekly half-hour-ish podcast hosted on ComparativeGeeks.com. Subscribe for new episodes every Sunday, or for our weekly news podcast, Week in Geek.
Welcome to the Comparative Opinions podcast! This week hosts Holly and David made it to Thor: Ragnarok, and the time to talk about it is now! This is the last episode of Comparative Opinions this year, we’ll be back in January! So yeah, spoiler-light and then spoiler-filled discussion of Thor: Ragnarok, which turned out to be a hard movie to talk about without spoilers… short answer: go see it!
Comparative Opinions is a weekly half-hour-ish podcast hosted on ComparativeGeeks.com. Subscribe for new episodes every Sunday!
The ramp-up to summer continues with great movie trailers, it would seem. And there’s one movie this year I didn’t dare get excited or even think much about. Sure, the first Thor was pretty great, but that was Kenneth Branagh. Then Thor the Dark World was only so-so.
The scene in Avengers Age of Ultron that was supposed to lead us into Thor Ragnarok was not super inspiring (and also was one of the more contentious scenes in the movie, since it seemed overly distracting from the plot and forced upon the director). But, we also got word that Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk was going to be in the movie, and then – in the Doctor Strange stinger – got to see that Strange himself was going to be involved as well. So there’s some reservations and some excitements, but the movie is coming out in November, so I wasn’t really thinking or caring about it.
Then this hit this morning.
OH MY GOSH CAN IT BE NOVEMBER YET?
I love good use of music in a movie trailer, especially following one song throughout – something that both Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and now Thor Ragnarok have done well lately. And it helps that I love both “The Chain” and “Immigrant Song!”
They probably had me completely hooked when Thor breaks the fourth wall right at the beginning and starts narrating. They almost certainly had me when Cate Blanchett ups the ante. But they just keep going – and it ends as gloriously as we might hope, revealing Hulk in all his outer space armored… incredibleness.
This movie has to contend with the Justice League, which to be fair probably won’t be easy. However, I think it’s going to hold its own just fine.
I found Kevin Smith’s reaction as well… pretty similar, I must say:
What do you think about Thor Ragnarok now? Let me know in the comments below!
The top voted topic for an alignment grid from our poll a while back was the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We did a really popular one for Guardians of the Galaxy a while back, and in that same vein, we’re going to do a few other of the movie franchises on their own.
With people visiting this week, this is our plan for the week, so hope you like! Today: the nine alignments of the Thor movies!
Marvel’s recent crossover event Infinity recently ended, and with all the events with “Infinity” in the title, this was a crossover that included the Mad Titan, Thanos, as the villain. In Infinity, he had to share the stage with the Builders, and was only one front of a two-front war. Nonetheless, his parts in Infinity tied in heavily to who he is as a villain, and what motivates him.
Of course, other Thanos events like the Infinity Gauntlet help inform us as to who Thanos is and what he’s up to, but Infinity drew from more than that. They did a limited-run, 5-issue series called Thanos Rising which explored the origin story of Thanos. It’s interesting, because with this story, it’s hard to tell where the previous Thanos events fit in. Nonetheless, the psychological underpinnings of the character are explored and revealed in Thanos Rising.
And what they lay out is that this is a mentally unbalanced, overly powerful character, willing – and wanting – to kill anyone and anything. Conquering or razing worlds because he can. So I’ve read the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos Rising, and Infinity, so let’s take a look at who this villain is! Spoilers to follow!
Comparative Geeks 