Moviefone Editorial

Tag: thor

  • These Characters Have the Most Screen Time in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’

    WARNING: This post contains some possible minor SPOILERS for “Avengers: Infinity War.” If you don’t want to know anything about the film — including which characters have the most screen time — stop reading now.

    It’s not easy taking dozens of characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and inserting them all into the same feature film — and according to “Avengers: Infinity War” co-director Joe Russo, that challenge means that some heroes are represented more than others in the flick. But fans should be pleasantly surprised by who is featured the most, Russo said, as well as how they drive the story moving forward.

    In an interview with Fandango, the director acknowledged that it was difficult to cram every single hero into the flick, noting that many of them would not receive equal screen time simply because it was not possible to do so in one movie. Russo did say, however, that those who were seemingly left out of “Avengers 3” will definitely play a bigger role in “Avengers 4.”

    As for who’s running the show in “Infinity War,” though, it should come as no surprise to fans that Russo said Thanos (Josh Brolin) was far and away the central character of the film, since the villain’s presence is what brings together all of the MCU’s various scattered heroes in the first place. Thanos is “at turns horrifying and at turns empathetic,” Russo said, with Fandango likening him to Michael B. Jordan’s sympathetic “Black Panther” baddie, Killmonger.

    The director also hinted that a certain God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth) makes a big splash in “Infinity War.” Here’s what he said when asked about who has the most screen time:

    Thanos has an incredible amount of screen time in this film, in a lot of ways I would say it’s his movie. … We wanted to tell a story that [audiences] weren’t expecting, and the story is told from the point of view of a villain, which I think is also really unique and risky for a commercial film that will surprise the audience. … [A]nd I think you’ll find that Thor has a really interesting arc in the film. He hasn’t been at the forefront of other Avengers movies but he certainly has a very important role in this film. … I think you’ll see that Thor is at times hilarious and at times tragic in the film.

    Interestingly, Russo also added a third character to the mix when talking about the “Infinity War” characters’ perspectives, including none other than Zoe Saldana‘s “Guardians of the Galaxy” heroine.

    “[The movie’s] point of view is Thanos’ point of view, so it’s a villain driving the narrative. But … that being said, it is at times multi-perspective and there are very important roles for a couple of the heroes,” the director explained to Fandango. “I think you could argue, too, that a lot of the film is told from the point of view of Gamora, and I think she has a really fascinating arc in the movie.”

    We’re already intrigued. Eager fans — who have broken ticket sales and trailer viewing records — won’t have to wait much longer to see how everything plays out: “Avengers: Infinity War” hits theaters worldwide on April 27.

    [via: Fandango]

  • Scarlett Johansson Mocks Thor’s New ‘Avengers’ Look: ‘He’s Hideous’

    Even “hideous” Thor still looks divine.

    Scarlett Johansson definitely kept it light on the Atlanta set of “Avengers: Infinity War.” Brooke Anderson of ET talked to several cast members in a June 2017 set visit, including Johansson (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow) and Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America).

    Evans left his answers pretty straight-forward, but Johansson had a bit more fun. Hey, when Robert Downey Jr. isn’t in the room, someone has to be the smart-ass!

    ET first asked about Cap’s new beard (which fans love), before moving on to Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) post-“Ragnarok” look. Here’s that part of the interview:

    ET: “Tell me about the beard you’ve got going on right now.”

    Chris Evans: “Yeah it grew fast. Just a lot of, like…”

    Scarlett Johansson: “He took prenatal vitamins, actually. That’s a little known fact.”

    ET: “They’re good for everything!”

    Johansson: “Yeah. Grow hair all over.”

    ET: “What do you think of Thor’s sexy new ‘do in the movie?”

    Evans: “It’s working for him isn’t it? Looks good.”

    Johansson: “He’s hideous. I can barely keep my eyes on him on set. I have to look away, constantly.”

    She’s joking. Short-haired pirate Thor may not be everyone’s favorite look, but he’s obviously not “hideous.” The words “hideous” and “Chris Hemsworth” don’t even belong in the same thought pattern. (Except maybe for “In the Heart of the Sea.” He really did look rough there.)

    Watch The Evans and Johansson Show, they are such a great team:


    And here’s more from some of their “Infinity War” costars:

    “Avengers: Infinity War” will open in theaters April 27th, 2018. That was shot back-to-back with “Avengers 4,” which opens May 3, 2019. And then … silence for Thor, Cap, and Black Widow? A lot of contracts ended after “Avengers 4” filming, and the films themselves will reveal how many OG characters will be returning for the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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  • 12 Times Chris Hemsworth Was Your Favorite Avenger

    Chris Hemsworth can pretty much do no wrong.

    Whether he’s kicking ass as a superhero, acting hilarious on “SNL,” of just generally being his adorable self, it’s hard not to love this guy. The “12 Strong” star has shown he’s got range to spare and we would watch him in pretty much any genre. Here’s proof.

  • Thanksgiving Movie Guide: 8 Movies You Should Watch in Theaters

    Thanksgiving Movie Guide: 8 Movies You Should Watch in Theaters

  • How ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Affected the Rest of the Box Office

    Are you not entertained?

    The gladiator-themed “Thor: Ragnarok” walloped the box office this weekend, debuting way above expectations with an estimated $121.0 million. The Marvel adventure boosted the box office to its biggest weekend since “Dunkirk” opened four months ago. So why isn’t the cheering from the stadium seats louder?

    Maybe because the success of “Ragnarok” doesn’t mean that the long box office slump is necessarily over. It was a good weekend if you’re a Marvel fan (or a Disney executive), but not so good for many others. The Thor-vs.-Hulk contest yielded a number of winners and losers beyond the arena, and together, they reveal a picture of a box office that’s still going to have to struggle to catch up with last year’s earnings.

    Winner: Disney. The “Ragnarok” opening means Disney owns three of the four biggest premieres of 2017 so far (along with “Beauty and the Beast” and Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2“). Plus, the studio still has Pixar’s “Coco” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” coming out before the end of the year. All the wailing and gnashing of teeth you hear from other studios is drowned out at the Magic Kingdom by the sound of cash registers ka-chinging.

    Winner: Marvel Cinematic Universe. Usually, threequels show signs of diminishing returns. Not at Marvel, where every “Thor” picture has opened bigger than the last. (2011’s “Thor” premiered with $65.7 million, while 2013’s “Thor: The Dark World” debuted with $85.7 million.) The same holds true of other MCU mini-franchises, including “Captain America” and “Iron Man.” Give credit to Marvel Studios for both quality control (“Ragnarok” earned a 93 percent fresh ratings from critics at Rotten Tomatoes and an A grade from paying customers at CinemaScore) and for keeping new installments fresh with unique approaches — in this case, the humorous tone of New Zealand director Taika Waititi.

    Loser: Kids. Remember when comic-book movies were dismissed as kiddie fare? No more. Only 16 percent of the “Ragnarok” audience was under 17. Viewers 25 and older made up 63 percent of the viewers. And adults were also the target audience for this weekend’s other new wide release, R-rated comedy sequel “A Bad Moms Christmas.” In fact, there wasn’t a tot-friendly movie anywhere among the top 15 releases, and nothing for the little ones to see outside the few theaters still playing “The LEGO Ninjago Movie” and “My LIttle Pony: The Movie.” Yes, it’s fall, and traditionally, it’s the time of year for grown-up movies, but it’s still rare to see a multiplex slate that so thoroughly writes off the tween-and-younger demographic.Loser: “A Bad Moms Christmas.” You can sort of see the logic here: With “Ragnarok” skewing 56 percent male, there seemed to be a vacuum for a movie that appealed to women. A sequel to last summer’s “Bad Moms” seemed just the ticket. But audiences and critics alike felt this installment was slapdash compared to the last one (the 2016 movie earned a 58 percent fresh rating at RT and an A at CinemaScore, while the new one earned a 32 percent RT score and a B grade at CinemaScore). Plus, the day after Halloween may be too soon to open a Christmas-themed movie.

    Even so, the sequel still managed to perform about as well as expected, debuting in second place with an estimated $17.0 million for the weekend and $21.6 million for the first five days. Still, “Christmas” cost $28 million to make, some $8 million more than the original. Subtract the theater owners’ cut and the cost of advertising, and the movie will have to earn at least $60 million to break even, a benchmark it’s going to have trouble reaching.

    Winner: IMAX. For “Ragnarok,” Disney is claiming the widest IMAX release ever, some 1187 venues worldwide. That includes 391 of the giant screens in America, responsible for $25.4 million of “Ragnarok”‘s domestic take. That’s a good sign for the large-screen format, but it’s also good as an indication that, when audiences recognize an event movie as a visual spectacle that deserves to be seen on a screen larger than the one in their living room, they’ll happily come to the theater to see it, even if it means coughing up premium-format surcharges.

    Loser: “LBJ.” The weekend’s only other semi-wide release (on 659 screens), the presidential biopic had a shot at breaking into the top 10, but it premiered in 14th place with just an estimated $1.1 million, or $1,727 per screen. That’s an average that indicates near-empty theaters, which was probably to be expected, since Lyndon B. Johnson remains a president less than beloved by history, and star Woody Harrelson is not a box office draw. Some pundits may have considered his “LBJ” performance a possible Oscar contender, but if the movie falls in the box office forest and doesn’t make a sound, Oscar voters won’t notice either.Winner: “Lady Bird.” Greta Gerwig‘s coming-of-age dramedy, starring Saoirse Ronan, opened on just four screens, but it averaged an estimated $93,903 on each of them, the biggest per-screen average of any movie this year. (For comparison’s sake, “Ragnarok” averaged $29,658 per screen.) Those numbers, along with a rare 100 percent fresh RT score from critics, bode well for “Lady Bird” once it expands into general release, as well as for the movie’s Oscar chances.

    Loser: The overall box office. One big weekend may not have been enough to turn the box office around. For one thing, it’s still about 8 percent behind the same weekend a year ago, which saw the premieres of Marvel’s “Doctor Strange,” kiddie hit “Trolls,” and Oscar-friendly war drama “Hacksaw Ridge,” which debuted with a combined $146.9 million. We’re not seeing that sort of deep bench this year, which is why 2017 ticket sales are still down about five percent from the same time a year ago.

  • Must Watch: New Movies Coming to Theaters in November 2017 (VIDEO)


    Welcome to New Release Rundown. I’m Tony Maccio from Moviefone, and we’re running down the most anticipated movies hitting theaters in November 2017.

    The month starts with the “Bad Moms” sequel “A Bad Moms Christmas,” coming to theaters, while the following Friday features the limited releases of indie darling “Lady Bird,” drama “Last Flag Flying,” biopic “LBJ” while psychological thriller “The Killing of a Sacred Dear” and Marvel’s “Thor: Ragnarok” go nationwide.

    November 10th moves along with a limited run of Martin McDonough’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and the wide releases of biographical drama “My Friend Dahmer,” novel adaptation “Murder on the Orient Express,” and comedy sequel “Daddy’s Home 2“

    Dropping November 17th is the coming-of-age film “Wonder,” faith-based animated movie “The Star,” drama “Roman J. Israel, Esq” starring Denzel Washington, and DC Entertainment going “all-in” with the big-screen debut of the “Justice League.”

    The day before Thanksgiving sees the wide release of Pixar’s “Coco” as well as the limited releases of holiday film “The Man Who Invented Christmas” and drama “Darkest Hour.”

    November finishes out on the 24th with the limited release of indie-drama “Call Me by Your Name.”

    Head over to Moviefone.com to watch the trailers for all the movies we mentioned, plus search showtimes and buy tickets for a theater near you!

  • The First ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Reviews Are In, With Three Big Standouts

    Critics are now posting their thoughts on “Thor: Ragnarok,” and it’s clear they like it — more than the previous “Thor” movies — and they seem to agree on what they like best:

    • The humor — calling Taika Waititi’s film one of the funniest Marvel movies yet.
    • Mark Mothersbaugh’s musical score.
    • Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie as the film’s “MVP.”

    Here are a few of the early reactions:

    Check out more initial reactions at Thor’s own special hashtag. Full reviews will be posted after the embargo is lifted, but it looks like a fresh score is ahead — maybe not top of the heap, but high. (DC fans, this is not bad for you, “Justice League,” or the DCEU. It’s OK for people to like another Marvel movie.)

    “Thor: Ragnarok” stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk, alongside Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Cate Blanchett as Hela the Goddess of Death. Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban, and Anthony Hopkins co-star. The movie arrives in theaters on November 3.

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  • Chris Hemsworth Almost Lost ‘Thor’ to Little Brother Liam

    US-ENTERTAINMENT-PREMIERE-VACATIONBrother was pitted against brother in the competition for the role of Thor, as Chris Hemsworth recently revealed.

    Hemsworth, who is starring in the upcoming third movie “Thor: Ragnarok,” told W Magazine that little brother Liam almost won the role away from him.

    “I came into the audition with [director] Kenneth Branagh and thought I nailed it and then never heard anything back,” he said.

    “Months went by and then my brother, my little brother, Liam, was in Australia and sent a tape across and he got a call back, then another call back and then was down to the last kind of four or five people for it.”

    Even his “Cabin in the Woods” director Drew Goddard and producer Joss Whedon couldn’t believe Hemsworth wasn’t in the mix for the role. Then, his manager reminded the Marvel team that Liam had an older brother.

    He sent another videotape audition (with his mother acting as Anthony Hopkins’ Odin).

    “She must have nailed it because it got me back in the room and that second audition was a lot different than my first one,” he explained.

    “I came in kind of with a little, I guess, motivation and maybe frustration that my little brother had gotten further than me. It’s a little family, sibling rivalry sort of kicked up in me.”

    Don’t you just hate it when your little bro tries to butt in on everything you do?

  • Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie Embodies Wit, Fun, and Fierceness in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’

    Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie in THOR: RAGNAROKAll it took for Tessa Thompson to transform into Marvel‘s mythological warrior woman Valkyrie was playful fierceness … and lots and lots of sword training.

    Fans attending the Marvel Studios panel at San Diego’s Comic-Con International got their first look at just how fierce the Asgardian could be when she delivers a familiar captured Thunder God to the Grandmaster in a preview of “Thor: Ragnarok,” and Thompson couldn’t have been more pleased with the emotional response.

    The actress, best known for her performances in “Westworld,” shared a few insights backstage with Moviefone, including shifting the character from her decidedly Nordic look from the comics to a more diverse big screen incarnation and the equally physical key that helped her embody the spirit of the role.

    Moviefone: It must have been amazing to be in that room and get the love blasted back from everybody.

    Tess Thompson: Oh, my goodness, yeah, it is! It’s hard: you can sort of see the first five rows of folks, and beyond that, you just sort of feel, energetically, a lot of people that are very, very excited. There was one woman in particular that was kind of just weeping openly, our whole panel. I think she was a very big Tom Hiddleston enthusiast and a Loki enthusiast.

    But in general, I think the joy of working on these films as an actor is to play in a space of such imagination. So it’s so fun to come to a place where people, that’s what they do, they’re investing three days of seeing the things that make their imagination light up, and that’s so fun to be around.

    Tell me about this character as she’s existed in the comics, historically, and then the version that you get to play in the movie, and the mix of those two.

    Yeah, Valkyrie pops up in different places — she hangs out with the Defenders — but what was so exciting, I think, in the context of our film is that Marvel really gave [director] Taika [Waititi] a lot of creative freedom with imagining these characters anew. Which is not to say they’re complete departures from the source material, but we see a new Bruce Banner, we see a new Hulk, we see a new Thor. We see these characters evolve and change, and the same is true of Valkyrie.

    I think they wanted to make a Valkyrie that felt current, and they wanted to respond to a lack of representation in these films, frankly. I think they also just wanted to find someone that could imbue her with a sense of wit and fun and play and fierceness. So it didn’t matter so much what she looked like, and I’m just lucky that she ended up looking like me.

    Did the wardrobe get you halfway there?

    Yeah. [Laughs] Also, learning how to work with swords. I worked with a fantastic swords master named Ruda [Vrba], who trained Gal Gadot. So just really embodying that and working on the training — I think that’s one of the great joys of working on these films, as many of the actors have said, is just the physical challenge of it that you don’t get to do really anywhere else in the same way.

    And if you ever need to pick up a sword in real life, you know how to use it.

    Yeah, true! I know. It might be hard to get through TSA, but we’ll see.

  • ‘Infinity War’ Director Talks ‘Surprise’ Duo, ‘Unprecedented’ MCU Task

    AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR Comic Con PosterThe roof of Comic-Con International’s Hall H nearly exploded from the unbridled excitement generated by a second unveiling the still-not-public sneak peek footage from “Avengers: Infinity War” that took D23 by storm.

    So, no pressure, Joe Russo.

    Immediately after the presentation, Russo — who, with his brother Anthony, are the filmmakers at the helm of the forthcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe mega-crossover that unites the superhero community in a battle against Thanos’s bid to conquer the cosmos — told Moviefone he was feeling energized by the wildly positive response to the footage, especially given that he and Anthony are just about to start work on the follow-up installment.

    And he offered a hint at who he suspects will be the breakout superhero comedy duo of “Infinity War.”

    Moviefone: The response that you’ve gotten here and at D23, what has it meant to you to see the enthusiasm the “Infinity War” footage has provoked?

    Joe Russo: It’s incredible, because oddly, it happened to have fallen, both D23 and Comic-Con, in between the two movies that we’re working on. It’s hard making these films, physically hard. It’s emotionally demanding, it’s psychologically demanding. To see that reaction, right before we’re about to start the second movie, is a great burst of energy to carry us to the next film.

    You’ve gotten the opportunity to work with just about everybody in the MCU so far. What was the thrill of experiencing the new people that you got to work with? Did anybody stand out as, like, that was way better than I expected?

    Everybody brings incredible energy. Marvel does an incredible job of casting. I joke that the cast is like “The Poseidon Adventure” meets “Towering Inferno.” It’s that big. Everyone who comes in is a movie star. Movie stars are day-playing on this film. They’ll come in and do one day’s worth of work.

    So you’re just constantly surprised every day by the quality of talent you have in front of you. I’ll just pick up the call sheet and laugh, because I go, “Oh my God, this person’s coming in for one or two days, and they’re one of my favorite actors.”

    These huge Marvel movies are challenging to make in any circumstance, but this is that big culmination movie, the epic that everything’s been building toward. What were the specific challenges of that for you?

    It’s trying to pull all the different threads together, all the characters so that you have continuity in narrative, that there’s a flow, that you are paying off everything that’s been set up. So, it’s been a hell of a task.

    Thankfully, we have incredible partners in [screenwriters Christopher] Markus and [Stephen] McFeely, who wrote “Winter Soldier” and “Civil War,” and are writing both “Avengers” scripts for us. We have great partners in Marvel. We’ve worked with the same crew now on four movies, so it’s like a family. So we have an incredible amount of support.

    The hardest part is tying all the different threads together. It’s kind of unprecedented. I can’t think of a movie that has this many stories that are leading into it. It literally took us a year in a room in front of a computer screen trying to figure it out.

    Are there any two characters you can tease that were especially fun to see together for the first time?

    Oh boy! I like the dynamic between Thor and Star-Lord. I think it’s going to surprise people. It’s very funny. People saw it today, what Taika [Waititi] did with the tone on “Ragnarok,” bringing that tone and energy from the “Thor” world into the “Guardians” universe, and you get a really combustable chemistry and some pretty funny stuff.Star-Lord and Thor