Radio FM4
Monday midnight on FM4 and everywhere there are podcasts: FM4 Film Podcast
FM4 colleague Christian Lehner already has detailed euphoric and critical thoughts on the new film by cinema bombast Baz Luhrmann formulated. Just so much at this point to “Elvis“: In the best moments of the two-and-a-half hour rock ‘n’ roll epic, there is a crackling electricity in the air. It sizzles and sparks. Fuses burn.
Costumes, belt buckles and rings sparkle. Hips swing, legs tremble. And from the mouth of the great Elvis actor Austin Butler, one of the most important sentences in pop history remains: “If I can’t move I can’t sing.” Both Natalie Brunner and I were seized by this energy in the cinema hall. In the new edition of FM4 Film Podcast we take a close look at the Elvis phenomenon and the remarkable larger-than-life approach of Baz Luhrmann from the spirit of the music video.
Warner Bros. Ent.
Eighties-Hardrock in Airbrush-Verpackung
And then the episode revolves around another pop culture god who actually rose from the old Norse sagas. But while one associates brutal black metal with the fierce Viking battle record “The Northman”, Marvels stands Space-Viking for eighties hard rock in airbrush packaging. Accompanied by Guns’N’Roses hits, Thor’s return to the most successful cinematic universe of the present pushes everyone retrofuturistic Buttons.
At the beginning of “Thor: Love & Thunder‘ The usual Marvel logo is missing at first. We jump right into the story with a spooky prologue. Christian Bale plays an extraterrestrial man dying of thirst in a distant desert. At the end of the scene, he survives but has to bury his young daughter. The fevered alien has become Gorr the God Butcher, who seems to have stepped straight out of an old Marilyn Manson video. Gods who allow a girl to die must die, is his oath.
Marvel
The gods must be crazy
And we meet a lot of gods and goddesses in this film, without any annoying multiverse. “Thor: Love & Thunder” takes place in the MCU – and as is well known, all classic mythical worlds coexist in it. We have already got to know the Nordic kingdom of gods Asgard in detail in the “Thor” films, up until its destruction. The New Asgard now presents itself as an earthly Disneyland for superhero fans. Multicultural and superwoke, but also totally geared towards tourism monies.
The former blonde ruler has retired. Thor races through the cosmos with the Guardians of the Galaxy to quickly save a few planets while exercising his overweight body. And he also preaches a bit of Californian New Age thinking, the vain Viking rooster in space. A tough and tender mega man, straight out of the columns of kitschy women’s magazines.
The fabulous New Zealand director Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbitt, What We Do In The Shadows) pushes all the comedic buttons in the first third of his film. And with action star Chris Hemsworth, of all people, he now has a gifted clown in the leading role. But the comedy gold medal goes to Russell Crowe with a sarcastic guest appearance.
Marvel
RomCom in superhero costume
Natalie Portman owes the fact that the mood then shifts to the dramatic and romantic. Exactly, Dr. Jane Foster is back. How the thunder god’s ex-lover becomes a superhero is not to be revealed here. But we already know from the trailer that the petite Jane in The Mighty Thor transformed, including hammer.
At the latest when the two Thors meet the Godbutcher, we have arrived in the usual Marvel territory. The digital effects radiate the same artificial ridiculousness that was recently seen in “Dr. Strange: In The Multiverse of Madness” or the “Eternals”. Aside from the unsuccessful showdown, this RomCom in a superhero costume is quite fun.