Okay! Thor is here. With Mjolnir and all.
Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is a physicist trying to identify a strange weather phenomenon in the desert of New Mexico. Suddenly it all turns a lot stranger as a blond body-builder slams against her car.
Cut to Asgard. Thor, the Norse God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth), is about to be crowned king of Asgard, in succession to Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Thanks to the machinations of jealous Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the ceremony is interrupted by three ice giants trying to steal a powerful shrine. The attempt fails, but considering this a declaration of war, Thor and his friends go to Jotunheim to fight the ice giants against Odin’s wish. After a brawl, Odin himself has to break up the fight, and he is so disappointed with Thor’s aggressive impulses that he strips him of his power (and his hammer) and sends him to Earth – where he slams into Jane Foster’s car. Adventures on Earth ensue, until Thor has learnt the meaning of self-sacrifice, at which point he is again worthy of his power (and his hammer).
Like many others, I was not sure what to make of this movie when I first saw the trailers. Hollywood disappoints more often than it satisfies (and yet we morons keep coming back for more), and I knew that Thor and his world would be difficult to pull off well. There are so many ways in which it might have been fouled up. But, the Iron Man movies have been surprisingly good, and I felt that there was reason to trust that Marvel Studios would manage to put out a passable Thor movie as well.
And they did. While I sat and watched the movie there was nothing at all that disappointed me. Every time we saw something new, my reaction was, “Yeah, that works!” One of my chief worries was that the Asgardian armoring and environment would look like plastic rather than any kind of metal, but it was okay. Not fantastic, but okay. It could have had more patina, more artful designs, etc., but it did the job without looking awful.
In fact, one of the things I love about this movie is its cosmic scope. Unlike the missing alien Shi’ar race in the X-Men movies (from whom they have their superior technology) and the missing reference to Venom’s alien origin in Spider-Man 3, Asgard in this movie is actually represented the way it is in the Marvel comics. The “Norse gods” are actually some energy aliens from the great beyond, using hi-tech that is described as being the same as both science and magic. Bridging the distance between their celestial abode and Earth is Bifrost, the rainbow bridge. In the comics, this is usually just represented as a common rainbow, but in the movie they needed something that looked better and more sci-fi-ish, so they did this rotating dome at the end of a kaleidoscopic rainbow bridge, which generated a wormhole for interworld travel. Very cool! Even if it looks a lot like the Boomtube technology used by DC Comics’ New Gods – but that’s all one, as the New Gods are also designed by Jack Kirby, and probably very inspired by Marvel’s Norse gods to begin with. The Kirby-tech look of Asgard was done fairly well in the film, my only complaint being that we didn’t see enough of it.
Because, while nothing disappointed me during the movie, I have to say that there were several slightly disappointing items in retrospective analysis. Where were the other Asgardians? They could at least have shown us Balder. Sif and the Warriors Three were present and part of the plot, but they received almost no character development. It was very cool to see the Destroyer, but I have to mention that in the comics the Destroyer is far, far more powerful. He is the sum-total of Odin’s power, and used to fight the ultimate space gods, known as the Celestials, in comparison with whom Thor’s full power pales to insignificance. So, in short, Thor should not have been able to defeat the Destroyer – but I guess they could explain it by saying that it was only imbued with Loki’s power…
And speaking of Loki, I think they developed his character very well. That may have been the movie’s greatest challenge, and they managed to portray him in a simple and clear way, retaining the ambivalence of loyalties that he himself is sometimes confused by.
Chris Hemsworth’s Thor was also a success. I am not sure if his freaky muscles were real or CGI-enhanced, but they looked pretty real. And the man can act, too, as he convincingly pulled off a character of great arrogance and great mirth; someone who has never had any reason not to be enormously satisfied with himself. His Asgardian armor still did look slightly too comicky to be cool in the real-world setting of a live action movie, but I can forgive that.
Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster was well played, although she left me with a feeling of not having had all that much to do. Was the plot in fact a bit muddled? Well, maybe a bit. Whenever more character development would have been appropriate, we would instantly get another action scene. Still, I think the plot held together quite well, and was simple enough to be clear to a general audience. The screenplay was apparently based on a story treatment by J. Michael Straczynski, and I am quite certain it was the best choice of the available ones.
The one big thing about the movie that really stumps me, though, is that the old comic book is known for having Thor speak in a Shakespearean-like language, which must have been the reason it occurred to them to have Kenneth Branagh (who has said in an interview that he actually did read some Thor comics growing up, so he should know about this!) direct this movie – and yet any kind of Shakespearean speech is surgically removed from the dialogue. I really think this calls for a WTF?!
Oh well. What can you do? Still, I admire Branagh for his equal devotion to high art and pop culture, which I share. It is too bad he didn’t get to combine the two very much in this movie.
So, what we have is a movie that did what it set out to do. In a perfect world it could certainly have been better, grander, more epic, more distinctive, etc., but the imperfect end result is still pretty damn good, especially if you’re a fan of the comics.
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård, Rene Russo, Clark Gregg and others
Runtime: 114 min
Country: USA
Film Rating: 
