More Than That

I thought the storyline in the second one was a little out there

wickedrum

they have lost the plot at some point

More Than That

Yeah This one seems more focused.

sum1

Yeah, the second Thor film was a disappointment.

More Than That

yeah I think they wanted to use Natalie a lot because it was the last film on her contract?
I love her but it was an overdose without much depth

More Than That

yeah I think they wanted to use Natalie a lot because it was the last film on her contract?
I love her but it was an overdose without much depth

LightYears

More Than That

Thanks

LightYears

miranstarr

Thanks for the new goodies!

sum1

Oh that's a thorny topic. Personally I think it's wrong to change the race of a character, whether it's Asian to white or white to black or whatever, BUT I think if the actor does it well enough it can be ok. Like Idris Elba is great as the Norse god Heimdall in the Thor films. An example that doesn't work at all is Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One in Doctor Strange. She's so not the Ancient One. And furthermore, making the Ancient One non-Tibetan is dodging the crucial topic of Tibet and what China has done to Tibet. It's a very cowardly move.

As for Valkyrie, well it doesn't make sense for a Norse god not to be white and the Valkyrie Brunhilde is an important character in Norse mythology and she's definitely white, and in the comics too, but I'm prepared to give Tessa a chance to make it work. Maybe she'll be like Idris as Heimdall.

wickedrum

most of these characters are demigods or the very least not from Earth so I don't really think they can be defined by race

sum1

That doesn't really follow. Pagan gods are invented by particular races and defined by particular ethnicities within those races, identified firmly with particular races and ethnicities. You wouldn't cast a white person as an African god, would you? Look at the film Gods of Egypt, that rightly got blasted for casting white actors as Egyptian gods. The same rule applies across the board. If we're to be strict we should allow only Scandinavian actors to play Norse gods and Greek actors to play Greek gods, but seeing as such extreme narrowness would be difficult, we should usually compromise by at least keeping the casting within the confines of the races the gods are associated with. Though, as I've said before, sometimes an actor from race other than the character's original race can make a race change work, in which case it should be accepted. Like Idris Elba as as Heimdall.

Personally I've always found it offensive how Hollywood keeps making films about Greek mythology without using actors of Greek blood to play the any of the Greek mythological figures and gods. And as an Irish person I would find it offensive to see any Celtic god played by any actor without Celtic ethnic ancestry, whether or not they were white. Of course, the Norse gods were also the Germanic gods and the Germanics include the Dutch, among others. Chris Hemsworth is a quarter Dutch and part German. That justifies his casting.

Idris Elba's casting was justified by his talent. We'll just have to wait and see if Tessa can pull off the same.

a new hope

I agree with this. I'm all for representing diversity UNLESS the race is crucial to the character. Let's say, Steve Rogers. He's supposed to be the Aryan-type as a slap in the face of Nazis, being someone who looks like what they consider ideal fighting against their prejudice. If they cast Steve Rogers as anything other than a tall blonde strong white male, it'd make no sense. On the other hand, if you look at Nick Fury, the change of race didn't affect the core of the character because it's not about that, and Samuel rocked it.

I'll always give new takes of characters a chance before judging though

sum1

In the Marvel Ultimate Universe comics there's a version of Nick Fury that's based on Samuel L Jackson. The movie version was based on that.