Thor

Anyone that hasn’t already figured it out, Marvel Studios has been making a big push getting all the big Marvel comic book heroes into movie franchises; however in what is a huge first in the film industry, these movies like their comic book counter parts are part of a shared universe, the point of which is to make one big set up for the team up movie “The Avengers”. This has been going on since “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” with each movie having more and more hints or reveals to keep fans of the comics drooling over the inevitable conclusion in a way that would put Pavlov’s dogs to shame.
“Thor”, the latest in this series, serves as both an origin story for the titular character, works on adding more to the universe as a whole and sets up even more buzz for the avengers. The premise is pretty simple, Norse mythology is actually real and the god of thunder, Thor, disobeys his father Odin by breaking a truce with a race of beings known as the frost giants. This results in Thor being stripped of his power and banished to Earth to learn humility before he will be allowed to return. All the while S.H.E.I.L.D., the homeland security agency in these movies, is investigating his sudden appearance and have possession of Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer and source of his power.
Whenever people ask me what I like in a good summer blockbuster movie, I have always been able to point at things like “Iron Man” or “Hellboy 2” because they are solidly constructed movies, with cool action set pieces, interesting characters and the sense that it has a good, if not completely original or deep story. “Thor” is one of those kinds of movies. It has a great central character in the form of a living god, who gets to fight giant ice men and metal suits of death with a giant hammer that he uses to fly and do all sorts of other awesome things with.
But unlike many movies of this ilk, a lot of focus is put on characters in “Thor” and it shows in the performances, all the actors really giving their all even to small comic relief parts like Kat Dennings as the sarcastic intern Dacy. Chris Hemsworth deserves particular praise for his portrayal as Thor, being great at conveying his massive arrogance in the film’s beginning and also being very good at showing his growth by film’s end in a way that is both believable and endearing. Anthony Hopkins steals the screen every time he appears as Odin, and Idris Alba who’s casting as Heimdall stirred up some controversy, is mesmerizing as the guardian of the gates to Asgard. Natalie Portman is nicely worked in as Thor’s love interest and Tom Hiddleston equips himself with just the right amount of slime and brooding to play god of mischief Loki.
That said, the movie’s pretty reliant on its visual style and there are two MVP’s to praise in the department are clearly production designer Bo Welch, who makes Asgard look both real and other worldly at the same time, and of course the film’s director Kenneth Branagh. It was a bit of a surprise to hear that Branagh, who is most known for his work adapting Shakespeare plays to the big screen, was directing a comic book movie. However, it becomes readily apparent that Branagh was the perfect choice for THIS comic book movie because the themes, characters and ideas are all larger than life and it’s clear that he can happily find himself at home working with the material, for which he clearly has great admiration, or at least respect. He handles the action scenes greatly, making big sweeping shots and giving them a visual pop that really enhances the visual effects, giving much more urgency and weight to them than most movies of this ilk have been able to pull off in a long time.
That said, “Thor” is not without its flaws. A lot of the time the movie feels like it wants to be much more about Thor, but that it has to keep working in the ties to the Avengers movie, including a cameo from Jeremy Renner, who is clearly fellow Avenger Hawkeye. It was nice, but in the context of the scene that he’s in, it’s pretty pointless. But at this point I’m just nit picking.
To sum up, “Thor” is great fun and a great time at the movies. It has fun characters cool action set pieces and a story that you actually want to see through to the end. If you haven’t seen it already do yourself the favor and see this in theaters, it really is one of those you can’t really get the same experience with a rental.

I give “Thor”

4 Magic Hammers out of 5