I went to see SWATH on the weekend. Muddy Grubby Huntsman is almost as dishy as Muddy Grubby Thor. Not a brilliant movie, but it was fine and the role certainly won't do his star power any harm.
Very much agreed. Not a great movie, but I enjoyed it a lot. Foremost for Muddy Grubby Huntsman. And he's getting a lot of attention for it, which is good.
That July GQ feature ain't gonna hurt, either.
What I find interesting about Chris as an emerging major action-movie star is that on the one hand, he's the quintessential action-guy -- built like a brick wall, very tall, athletic -- and on the other, four of his recent, high-profile genre roles have involved him not just being the square-jawed action hero, but have called on him to get really emotional and cry.
For that list, I'm counting "Star Trek 09" (not a big role by any means, but everybody noticed it, and he had the audience in tears in the first 10 minutes of the movie, so a great debut), "Thor", "Avengers" (more subtle, but he does shed some tears in the scene where Loki drops him in the cage), and SWATH. For all I know, the list could be higher, since I haven't seen Cabin, or his other earlier films.
It's nice to see films taking advantage of his acting versatility, as well as his looks and physique.
*(I say "emerging" because I don't think we quite have proof yet that he can headline a movie and be a box-office draw by himself. Avengers was an ensemble, and while plenty of people went to see SWATH perhaps partly because of him, I don't think we can say he was the main reason people went to see it.)