Beauty vs Beast: Hear Her Roar Ragnarok
Monday, November 13, 2017 at 3:22PM Jason from MNPP, championing the second weekend of big-time Thor receipts with some "Beauty vs Beast" love for its ladies - among all the intergalactic biological diversity that Ragnarok director Taika Waititi brought to the Marvel franchise it shouldn't be discounted the prime roles he gave to several actresses, including the villain Hela (some Australian actress, never heard of her) and the drunk Asgardian runaway Valkyrie (Tessa Thomspon).
As with all the best villains Hela's got a solid claim to righteousness as the throne is hers and her father's a hypocrite... although I do wish Taika had gotten her more mixed into the bulk of the action. And Valkyrie is a fascinating, damaged, complicated character, imperfect in ways Female Heroes don't usually get to be. And even better the two of them have their own antagonistic history so I can easily ask you to choose sides...
PREVIOUSLY From Gods to Angels, last week we tackled the Mormon marriage at the heart of Tony Kushner's play turned HBO movie, and even though Patrick Wilson (and his butt) made a good showing it was Mary Louise Parker's Harper who stole 65% of your hearts. Said row-bin:
"The one thing above all others that I remember from watching this when it first aired was Mary Louise Parker screaming, "MR LIES? MR LIES!" with this gut wrenching need to escape. I still get goosebumps when I think about it. Team Harper, if nothing for that searing memory."
Reader Comments (19)
I'm going with Hela. Cate Blanchett just owned that role and made it so fun to watch as I just loved every second she's in.
I know Blanchett will win this easily, and it's a tough choice but Valkyrie is just so much fun and is actually developed as a character. Hela's fun, but it stops at that - although there is much potenial with her character, it just never seems to go anywhere.
This was actually pretty difficult to decide, but I ended up going with Valkyrie. That was mostly because I loved her complexities. Though yes Hela was a wonderful villain full of style and just deliciously evil. Both women were very exciting to watch on screen.
Love Tessa but she was the worst drunk ever.
C8 was legit serving for the gawds everywhere.
I may be in the minority, but I thought Cate Blanchett gave the worst performance in this film. She was also given the least to do. Tessa at least went through a story arc, and had star charisma. Cate sulked more or less alone on a planet where nothing much was happening and spandex seemed like a step down for her.
Hair down Hela vs. Black suit Valkyrie is the real contest. When the latter had her costume change it swallowed her whereas hair down gave Hela a nice sinister confidence. Yes I just reduced them to their costumes and hairstyling. But that’s because there’s just so much to love. And I thought TT owned her performance much more as the scrapper than the saint whereas Hela was good in both variations. Top marks for Scrapper Valkyrie but overall win to Hela for full-package duel.
Do you really think that Cate Blanchett would lose a competition on this website?
Her most gif-able performance outside of Carol (2015)
chasm301 -- I KNOW I KNOW ;) But Tessa actually wins my vote here, much to my shock and awe, and I figured she'd win some others too. And I was curious to hear opinions like those we've heard so far in these comments
Valkyrie easily. Thompson gave the best performance in the whole movie.
Blanchett was game and didn't disgrace herself with what she was given to work with, but was yet again another underwhelming Marvel villain.
Blanchett will unfortunately win the poll of course. But because she has a lot more loyal and dedicated stans. Not because she actually gave a better performance than Thompson, because she didn't.
But if Thompson keeps up her trajectory (with Creed and Dear White People), one day she'l have her own Army of Stans to vote for her to defeat a Blanchett.
Hela is one hell of a villain- and Blanchett is deliciously evil
Valkyrie!! C'mon! Hela was one of the best villains Marvel has had (but not a hard standard to beat) and Blanchett was deliciously camp in the role and as entertaining as ever. But she still suffered from Marvel's sidelining of its villains as one note and somewhat limited.
Thompson has more to work with, but she took Valkyrie and made her the most interesting female character this franchise has ever had. Love. Love. Love.
#TeamHela
Tessa is only a few votes from winning! Cate gets s C+ for effort, but Tessa was more memorable.
Jason, thanks for the headline shoutout to Ms. Reddy! We need her now more than ever.
Hela was better than your average Marvel villain, mostly because of Blanchett's performance, but I think she could have been used more effectively so she didn't quite live up to her full potential.
Valkyrie was better written than any woman in the Thor franchise and Thompson was very charismatic so I have to give this one to her.
#TeamHela 💥💥🙌🙌💯
Yeah Valkyrie was an awesome character but Blanchett as Hela legit made me question my sexuality. Idk why this means I must vote for her, but vote I must. That smolder she does the moment she's introduced *swoons*.
Despite the limited arc given to her Cate still manages to keep Hela an interesting and if I may add deliciously evil villain. So I give this to her. The Valkyrie was aided by her well written arc and she was given a lot to do but it was Hela that got my attention the whole time she was onscreen.