Exiled to Earth, Thor must learn what it truly means to be ready to rule the realm of Asgard.
What They Say:
At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans as punishment. Once here, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.
The Review:
After the success of the two Iron Man movies and the relative success of The Incredible Hulk, the release of Thor has a lot riding on it as they move away from the more well known characters, though Thor himself is obviously one that has been around a lot longer, just in a different form. While the other Marvel character comic films have been grounded in some form of reality taken to the next level, from weapons suits to mutations, Thor moves us into a very different realm that could be hard for some to adapt to. Having spent a very good part of the eighties reading Thor comics and his involvement in other books like the Avengers, and then reading the re-introduction of the character a few years prior in a story that served as a basis for this one, I’m familiar with the overall concepts and can enjoy the differences that are brought in here to tell a larger story.
Thor weaves a slightly awkward story at the first as it deals with the present day where we’re introduced to Jane Foster as she’s doing astrophysics work in New Mexico, only to have a surprise storm occur that deposits a very confused Thor to the realm of Earth. While this establishes things quickly, bringing both Thor and Jane together, it then has the unenviable task of providing an info dump. Shifting back over a millennium to show an attack of Frost Giants on Earth, and how the Asgardians came under the leadership of Odin to push back on them, we see the grand scale of the cosmos and how there are unifying elements amongst everything. It’s an impressive sequence as we take in so many different things as it deals in the days when Thor and Loki were young boys as well as Thor’s own ascension to the throne. An ascension that goes awry as we well know because he’s simply not ready in his father’s eyes when he wages a fresh battle against the Frost Giants for the actions of just a few that managed to slip into Asgard.
Thor is a pretty standard story where the son must discover what it is he truly needs in order to be king. His life has been groomed towards it, but his views on things, the rash nature he has when it comes to fighting and the simple fact that he thinks things can be solved with his hammer over anything else makes it plain he’s not ready, something he makes even clearer when he launches a secret cabal to attack the Frost Giants to end them once and for all. His exile to Earth in order to learn what he needs is an obvious plan of his father, but the complications arise as Loki has his own plans to gain control, but even those go in strange and unexpected directions as he learns truths that radically shift his sense of who he is and what his family truly means to him. The arcs for just about all the characters go along expected trajectories with no real deviations, but what makes it work is that it is well written and the actors make it believable.
Bringing magic as science into the Marvel Movie Universe is an area that had to be handled just right and I think they pulled it off pretty well here. There’s such a grand scale to it when we see how the realm of Asgard looks that you can get swept up into it easily and they go whole hog with it within the first couple of minutes. Rather than edge into it slowly, I rather liked this approach since it makes it plain that this is the angle they want to take and they’re not going to shy away from it. The capes, the helmets, the manner of speech and the grandeur of architecture all make it very distinct, especially in comparison to the previous comic movies we’ve seen of Marvel properties before which have all been very accessible. With there being so much travel between the two realms, and plenty of visitors from Asgard to Earth, it does manage to blend it well while still feeling like it’s out of place. When Lady Sif and the Warriors Three stroll through the New Mexico town, they’re definitely out of place, but they carry it off with an air of confidence that allows it to work.
While there’s some awkwardness to the script in the early part as it shifts between a few different things and wraps around again to the beginning, the cast behind this really sells the whole thing with a couple of exceptions. Chris Hemsworth works both sides of his character very well as he has the arrogance and confidence at the start and learns humility along the way as he spends time on Earth. Natalie Portman is the weak link for me here as she essentially has a schoolgirl crush on Thor when she understands who he is, though some of it just seeing him as a stepping stone for what she needs for her career, though there’s some physical attraction as well. What doesn’t work is that it’s hard to really feel the relationship between them. It has its moments as he explains the science of magic and where he comes from, showing her falling for him in that sense that he’s simply out of this world, but something deeper never resonates.
When it comes to the Lady Sif and the Warriors Three, I think they got these down pretty well overall and I found myself really rooting for Jaimie Alexander as Sif. The one that really won me over though was Joshua Dallas as Fandral, as last minute casting no less, who truly felt like he embodied my vision not only of how that character should look but also how he should sound and act. You pretty much want a movie with just these guys as it would be a hell of a lot of fun. Equally impressive, especially when you consider what kind of role it is, is Idris Elba who takes on the role of Heimdall, the man who overseas the Rainbow Bridge. He gets to play the very serious role here, more so than almost anyone else, but he still has a wry sense about him at key times that helps to allow you to connect with him.
What really surprised me the most with this movie though was just how much it felt more and more like a movie about Loki. Tom Hiddleston in my mind completely stole the show here with his performance, giving it some wonderful layering that lets you empathize with him in ways you rarely get to do with the villain of these kinds of films. There’s a sense of tragedy about him with what he learns, his place in life and the secrets that have been held from him, but even throughout all of it he spends his time scheming and earning his title of trickster while never overplaying that hand. This is even more impressive when you consider the costume he has at times with the helmet, but it all feels so natural and watching Hiddleston was quite the revelation.
In Summary:
With Thor, you definitely have to go in with tempered expectations if you were pretty thrilled with the Iron Man movies. It’s not that kind of movie and it shouldn’t be. They’re vastly different characters, different approaches and very different mythologies to work with. Branagh has worked the material here and given it the kind of gravitas it needed when it came to the cast, the direction and the atmosphere it works with. There’s a lot of things in here that if you’re a hardcore Thor fan, you’ll get a whole lot of grins and enjoyment out of. But if you’ve never gotten into the character before, I think you’ll find something surprising and engaging that helps to expand what kind of universe these films exist in. With such striking visuals, particularly with the Rainbow Bridge that really captivated me, our suspension of disbelief has to work overtime after what we’ve been exposed to, but the payoff is definitely there and I left very pleased, especially with the post-credits scene that ties so many different things together in a way films have never really done before.
Grade: B+
Recommendation: Theatrical run, but 2D only.
I actually would have given this movie an A for the visuals alone. They were astounding and would rival any sy fi movie out there and I would put it up there with Star wars as one of the best special effects movies ever made. Yea the charachter is different than iron man and Dealing with an origin story that deals with greek like mythology will be very different. However thats the joy of all the different charachters. Charachter portrayal of Thor was done well as were all the others involved as well. Go in open minded and you’ll have a blast. Syfi fans would get a blast out of thor. as well.