This doesn't suck, at all!

I have nothing to report about Thor, but the filming of The Heart of the Sea has wrapped up. Here's Chris looking appopriately dishevelled:





And since I can't help myself, check out under-base's take on Chris and Daniel's preparation for Rush, explaining why James' favourite article of clothing never made it into the film:

Bullet points today:

• It appears Cyber will not be released until 2015, along with The Heart of the Sea, so that's a whole year without a new Chris Hemsworth film :sigh:



• To make this somewhat Thor related - a quote from Kevin Smith:
  
  “Ohhhh… Chris Hemsworth. That dude’s the—nevermind the perfect Thor, he’s the perfect /MAN/. He’s on my short list…. yanno, like that list of five people you’re allowed to have an affair with if I ever meet them. I put Hemsworth at number three on my list. Would you let Thor hammer you, or what?”
  
  You said it, Kev!



• And here's another awesome piece of Rush fan art:
  
  
  
  Now why couldn't they have made such headlines?! ;-)

I wasn't crazy enough to go see Thor: The Dark World a minute after midnight on Wednesday, but I did go see it after work. It was great fun, there were moments I was laughing so hard it actually hurt. And I did like the overall developments of the story for the most part. Also, Thor is just so beautiful!

Someone please tell me that there'll finally be Thor/Heimdall fic after this! Also, Jane Foster actually had an important role to play, rather than just being there, but I'm still not sold on this epic love she and Thor apparently share.

Poor Warriors Three had even less to do than last time :sigh:

Awesome Avenger cameo!

I'm heartless enough that I wasn't moved at all by the dramatic developments of the story :shrug: I did like how they've set up Thor 3 with the ending, though.

The short scene at the very end of the credits is actually worth waiting for, which is annoying, because this means I'll have to sit through all the credits on each re-watch.

I'm sure I'll think of something else and will post more

HAPPY BIRTHDAY _backpages_ and left_sider!

Marvel's Thor the Dark World promo campaign has finally lent something that works for me:



The Mjolnir slam! The banter! I love it :-)

In other news, there are now three pages of stories about James Hunt on AO3. Score!

For the first time in forever I have actually finished a fic! Sure it's just a 2000-word PWP, but considering all the sad, abandoned story fragments littering my hard drive this is huge for me.

Rush fandom is my first one based entirely on Tumblr, and although I'm still struggling with the format, I am also happy to have found others who would snort at the same quotes and pictures I am :-) The only thing I miss is the discussion :sigh:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY melusinahp! May you have a wonderful year :-)

I'm so smitten with Rush it's not even funny. I've seen it three times now and will see it at least once more. I keep having the score play in my head, particularly the bit from the Japanese Grand Prix, which just really winds you up :-)

Here's one more awesome featurette:



It has some of the real footage used in the film. I really love the bit in the middle with Niki and James standing by the wall talking. They're just the perfect OTP ;-)

And speaking of real footage, someone posted on Tumblr a video about the Spanish Grand Prix which includes the "big balls" interview:



Hee, so awesome! I can totally see what Chris was talking about when he said the best research material he got were the interview b-rolls from BBC, in which Hunt would act like a little kid, his attention just wandering from one thing to the next. It's amazing to see him go from that to his well-spoken public persona.

So I've seen Rush and I guess I'll have to see it again (what a hardship ;-)) to really form an opinion. At the moment I'm too overwhelmed with contradictory reactions to think straight.

I was very impressed with Chris' performance. I didn't really expect to be able to buy him as James, but he really took me by surprise. The accent was so good even I was able to notice. His speech after receiving the RAC award was just perfect. And the first time he did the hunched shoulders I actually got teary-eyed.

I'm very disappointed with how little of what went on during the 1976 season was actually shown. Or how the things that were in would be shown in a way that made them come across as completely different. I guess it was a mistake to learn so much about the subject matter, because I did spend a good portion of the film mentally shaking my fist at the screen.

I also can't help feeling that the focus of the film was Niki's story with James just popping up as eye candy every once in a while. I guess I should have foreseen it, Peter Morgan freely admitted that his wife knew Niki and so Niki's story was his starting point, but I honestly expected the film to be about the 1976 championship and James' and Niki's rivalry for the title.

Instead, the film came across as weighted very heavily in Niki's favour - he had the best scenes, the funniest lines, and his accident and recovery are the centre of the story. Also, with how few races were being shown the film really gave the impression that James was nowhere near good enough to be actual competition and only won because of Niki's accident. Hell, Niki all but says this in the last scene.

So yeah, fuck you very much, Peter Morgan. No, making James win the Biritish Grand Prix after all does not make up for this, regardless how delighted he would have been.

I hope after I see the film again this impression will prove invalid.

I do have to give it to Morgan, though, that he somehow did manage to make the Japanese Grand Prix climactic even though on paper a race in which the two main rivals weren't really competing against each other made for a poor ending. Those last few laps were quite something.

And with the footage of real James and Niki at the end I went out of the cinema with mascara dripping down my face.

There's so much new stuff about Rush! Check out this featurette, for example, about how Chris and Daniel were learning to drive in a Formula car (not Formula 1, mind you, they weren't allowed into those, but Formula 3). It also contains some new clips from the film, including one with Alastair Caldwell, who is in the film after all, played by Stephen Mangan! The scene seems to be him wishing James good luck before the Japanese Grand Prix, so I guess there'll be none of the "Get out of that car and I'll break your fucking neck," then. :sigh:



Then there's the clip with James taunting Niki back in the Formula 3 days. All the articles I've read stressed that the film exaggerates the extent of Hunt and Lauda’s rivalry, so there won't be much of their off the track friendship in the film. Oh well, antagonists are great for slashing too:

http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:950062/cp~vid%3D950062%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A950062

And here's a clip showing James and Suzy flirting:



The latest Empire has a review for Rush. The highlights include:

As played by Hemsworth, with more confidence, sex appeal and charm than all the 007s put together, Hunt is the hedonists’ hedonist…

or (about the amazing cinematography)

The result is far more immersive than any 3D you can imagine, and makes The Fast And The Furious look like The Ambling And The Disgruntled.

Hee!

( scans under the cut )

It's all about Rush this week! There's a new teaser: Introducing James Hunt:



I love that they've re-enacted the "big balls" interview ;-) I couldn't help re-watching the original version a lot:



There are also new screencaps:





Too bad that they got James’ casual attire all wrong in the film. As per his biography “Hunt the Shunt”:

Whenever possible, and with little excuse, Hunt would strip off the top half of his clothing and his jeans, and often got down to the skimpiest underwear or swimming trunks. He would often walk around the Formula One paddock in his trunks, showing not the slightest discomfiture. Sometimes, he might as well have been naked. But most times, he would be in a sleeveless vest-type shirt with shorts, no shoes and no socks - sometimes even on live television as he walked around the starting grid.

I certainly would have preferred to see that in the film ;-)

And there's also a new interview with Chris about the film:

http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/-james-hunt-was-the-ultimate-rock-star--115342619.html