I'll begin this movie review by admitting that I have always been bored by Thor. I usually find most of the 1950's created "Avenger" type superheroes boring in fact. Thor was just a big guy with wings on his hat and bad hair. Besides his "verily" and "thou hast" speeches there was little to separate him from any of the other white-bread heroes of yesteryear. Even the fact he was a God bored me since the Vikings aren't exactly known for their creativity when it comes to Gods. It would have been much more interesting to explore the world, heroes, and villains of a Greek God for instance. Instead we get lots of Nordic beards and fancy helmets. Frozen landscapes and swords and shields. Thor is a God among men, except when he isn't, which is what this film explores.
It seems Thor has some issues with his father (what ancient deity doesn't have some daddy issues?) Odin, played with eye-patched gusto by a still very able Anthony Hopkins. Odin is desperate for one of his two sons to become the King of Asgard, their mythical home that is only reachable from Earth via a Rainbow Bridge. That's right, I said Rainbow Bridge. I was curious how Summer Blockbuster "Thor" would handle the Rainbow Bridge and they found a way that wasn't full-on rainbow. It was actually quite impressive. Odin's only other option for heir to the throne is Thor's sickly, vaguely coded gay brother Loki.
As is usually the case when two brothers are vying for a throne nothing good comes of this scenario. Add to that the fact Loki is the Norse God of Mischief and Strife and Thor soon finds his hot-temper getting the best of him, which leads Odin to banish him to Earth. We're like rehab for bad gods I guess.
Finding himself without his godly powers and without his trademark Hammer Thor is lost and confused. This film brought to mind a cult-classic of the 80's called "Beastmaster" with the warrior fish out of water story of a God attempting to understand a modern earth with the help of a female companion.
This time the companion is played by Natalie Portman in another A-List-actress-as-hero-hanger-on character that Marvel seems to keep being lucky enough to snag for superhero movies. I literally cannot remember Portman's characters name although I think Foster was in it somewhere. The scenes with Nat and her scientist pals alone are the weakest parts of this film. She brings no depth to her character. No reason as to why she "falls for" Thor over a day and a half.
OK, maybe I see why! What I'm getting at is that their on-screen chemistry seemed forced. Thor is more in his element when he is on a quest. Whether it be battling Frost Giants or finding his magic hammer, Thor is a man of action! Lots and lots of action. Some of it the kind of CGI action I hate. Bad guys flying at the screen in rapid succession only to be vanquished by our hero. I chose to see Thor in 2D as all the 3D I've seen since Avatar has been dark and awful looking.
Here's Thor, with a shirt but still pretty hot, trying to reclaim the Hammer his dad thoughtlessly threw to Earth after him.
There was a lot to like about Thor. Chris Hemsworth has a lot of potential as a leading man in my opinion. He seems likeable and even relatable as Thor, something I didn't expect going in. The stuff with SHIELD was good. Kat Dannings as Natalie Portman's assistant had some good one-liners. We get a nice preview of one of the future Avengers about half-way through the film. Thor's friends in the film The Warriors Three and Sif, The Goddess of War were a nice touch.
They also spell out what was wrong with this film. A character like Thor needs a lot of back-story and we aren't given much here. All of his friends and even his foes are under-developed characters besides maybe Odin. Thor fights monsters and robots and we have no idea why exactly they exist in this world. They are just obstacles thrown in our heroes way as he lumbers through the predictable plot of reckless youth to doubting Thomas. Then, of course, having the classic movie revelation that everything he has done for the last hour has been stupid and becoming the hero we all knew he was from the beginning.
To Thor's credit this all played out quickly and to the point. The affects aren't totally lost on me but they are a bit overdone. Hemsworth, Hiddleston, and Hopkins (Triple H!) are the standouts here and everything else is kind of lost in the background. I can't help but feel Thor is just another warm-up film for "The Avengers". "Iron Man 2" sure felt that way. Just a step toward the money-shot so to speak. There is the usual post credit plot development here too so stay tuned after the credits! Overall this was a big-budget time waster. The kind of thing that I enjoyed but won't recall the details of in a few weeks. I eat these Marvel movies up with lots of popcorn though. Even the not so great ones. Don't be surprised if "X-Men: First Class" doesn't get a review!
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