The Mighty Thor: a hero with hair and heart of gold
I just watched the beginning of Marvel Studios’ penultimate summer before the nerdstravagance that is The Avengers movie: Kenneth Branagh’s “Thor” starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman. Was it worth the 80% or so it’s currently receiving on Rotten Tomatoes? Short answer: yes.
After leaving the theatre I felt much the same way I did after I had finished watching Bryan Singer’s “Superman Returns.” I was a little awed, somewhat impressed, quite speechless, kinda hungry… While Thor isn’t the magnum opus that The Dark Knight or Spider-Man 2 was, or the blockbuster crowd pleaser that was Iron Man, it does manage to be one thing - a solid superhero movie. This might seem strange with the recent slew of comic book movies we’ve been getting as of late, but I think movies like Thor and Superman Returns draw a very distinct line between a “comic book movie” and a “superhero movie.” For example: you have movies like Unbreakable or Law Abiding Citizen which are not based on comic book properties but have a very distinct superhero-ish feel to it (with Law Abiding Citizen of course being a superVILLAIN movie - which made it AWESOME, by the way).
The one big action set piece of the film - the battle with the dastardly Frost Giants - I wanted SO BADLY to liike, and there were bits in there that were genuinely exciting and awesome. But in the end, it was just a very very DIM CG fest that I felt was only necessary to show off just how frigging MIGHTY (read: overpowered) Superman Thor really is.
Wow. I actually typed out “Superman” without thinking about it. I don’t know whether it was the theatre I was in or if that scene really IS that dark, but I could barely make out what was happening. I know Jotunheim is supposed to be this land of cold and darkness, but it was SO DARK I could barely make out what was happening half the time. I suspect this has more to do with hiding rushed visual effects and a post-production 3D conversion…YEECH. What Thor lacks in whizbang HOLY SHIT! moments and ludicrious 20 minute long action scenes (ala the Incredible Hulk) it more than makes up in heart - a solid, golden, Asgardian, thick meaty engine of a heart in the form of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor: A lovable oaf of a hero who is arrogant, quick tempered and who you’re sure is to learn a hard lesson before the film’s end. Indeed, Thor’s classic Hero’s Quest, while being your fairly standard affair, is given life by Hemsworth, Portman and all of the supporting cast.
On top of all this, Kenneth Branagh is able to make Asgardian politics and family dynamics downright Shakespearean, pulling out great performances from Tom Hiddleston’s Loki (who I’m sure will be one of the big bad’s in The Avengers) and Anthony Hopkins’ Odin. I regard all of the scenes in Asgard to be some of the best in the film; the otherworldly set design and incredibly beautiful CG vistas that were created for the film are able to bring a very high-fantasy feeling for what is essentially a science fiction film. In a move that is almost the polar opposite of previous Marvel outings Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, stars, galaxies and wormholes are made to appear exactly how they should be: magical.
I was worried that the outwardly magical appearance of Thor and Asgard would not fit so nicely into the Marvel Movie Universe, but they were to handle this movie in a way that made it feasible, if at times hilariously ridiculous. This is a strategy that I have to think was done on purpose only for the sole reason that there was no way to put the Norse God of Thunder side by side with Iron Man, The Hulk and Captain America WITHOUT people laughing at how awkward and silly it is. But, somehow it works and even though we have these hilariously cheesy scenes of Thor flying over New Mexico we can still cheer for him because he’s just so damn likable.
