| Thor Review |
| Written by Nick West | |||
| Wednesday, 11 May 2011 09:52 | |||
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The big selling point for me in wanting to see Thor was Kenneth Branagh in the director’s chair. Having a knowledge of the source material I thought there was no better choice to tackle the pseudo-shakespearian themes than Mr. Shakespeare himself. Luckily he did not disappoint, at least in the direction itself. Thor tells the story of a young god who is too vain for his own good. Banished from the kingdom by his father Odin, Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, must come to terms with newfound mortality and learn just how much to trust his brother Loki. The first twenty minutes of the movie are a scattered mess. The initial action is filled with way too many quick cuts—but that’s only a few minutes. Once the attempted emotional gravity takes place, the fight scenes also pull back and become easier to watch. Let me go ahead and put an emphasis on attempted emotional gravity. It’s hard to care about the first big battle scene involving Thor and his comrades. However, it does pay off for comedic effect later. Thor makes a selfish mistake that hurts a friend and plunges his kingdom into war. He is banished to “Midgard” (Earth)—and this is where the best scenes of the movie take place. A scientific team consisting of Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard, and Kat Dennings find the de-powered god in a New Mexico desert. The three mortals have great screen presence and lots of heart. Dennings serves as our comic relief and does a fantastic job. The dialogue is overall witty and fun. Skarsgard especially shines. In what could have been a throwaway exposition role, we instead get a fleshed out character with great delivery. Sadly, as talented as Portman is, her character is a one-dimensional love interest/Hollywood faux-scientist. Hemsworth is an always believable Thor, even if the script moves his hero-arc too fast. He and Portman have chemistry and it’s a good thing they do. I found myself asking, “Why is there even a love story?” and “Why are these two characters falling in love?” It’s forced, plain and simple. They sure do look pretty though. The greatest emotional moments come from Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki. He is brilliant as a conflicted and emotional brother who turns on his kingdom. In myth is he is the liar and great deciever—the symbolic satan. Hiddleston gives us sympathy-for-the-devil in his performance. You can understand his actions even if you deplore them. Beautiful. He’s a great villain. Anthony Hopkins does his best Hopkins-as-king-impression but looks cool. And for some reason Rene Russo shows up and ruins every camera shot she’s in. In getting back to Branagh as director, I’m going to guess he did the best he could with the material he was handed. In order to understand Thor, you have to understand the Marvel editorial mandate. Thor is based on a comic book from The Marvel Universe. It is part of a league of movies that are leading up to one big superhero flick: The Avengers. If you haven’t caught on, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America are also going to be a part of said super-team, The Avengers. All those Samuel L. Jackson appearances are supposed to tie this whole thing together. So any director or writer that works on a Marvel movie is also part of a bigger narrative. As far as I know, this is the first time anything like this has ever been done. And it’s quite cool in concept. However, it gets a little weary when you realize that Iron Man 2 and Thor are ultimately just big commercials for a future movie. Having said all that, Thor is a pretty awesome commercial. It could be worse. Could it be better? Perhaps if it was a standalone movie or trilogy. But it’s not—and this is what we get. Thor is big and bold. It is a popcorn movie. The action is fantastic, the casting is right on, the pacing is great (after twenty minutes), and the themes (while forced) are powerful. There are moments of genius and moments of outright bad storytelling (editorial mandate anyone?). But I think most people will leave the theater happy. Official Site: http://thor.marvel.com/
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