Thor
is one of the most powerful and yet one of the least interesting superheroes in
the realm of the Marvel Universe. Sure,
if you pit a character like... The Beast
here... there is no chance in hell that The Beast would achieve success in
beating up a Norse god. However,
fans would root for the underdog even if he is portrayed as the geeky mutant
with blue fur. .
We
love the X-Men because they are
underdogs.
Thor
had a magical silver spoon shoved to his mouth and once he fights bad guys, it
is as if that he’ll always win... every time.
He is
a freaking Norse god for crying out loud!
If he
loses... it’s just... sad!
This
is the problem I have with the movie when I first heard of it. I was guessing
Thor’s godly conflicts would resemble that of the second Hellboy instalment or those other medieval-themed sci-fi stories
like Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of
Narnia, or hell... Shrek!
We all
know Thor is a story about the struggles of the Norse god and thunder and the
Norse god of mischief, which is his brother, Loki. What we don’t know is how they will execute this properly and
how will “The Avengers” element kick
in the movie.
Well,
the movie is directed by Kenneth Branagh
– one of the best thespians in Hollywood and in Broadway.
Another
fun fact of the movie – I loved it.
HUMAN ELEMENT OF THOR!
I had
to all caps this phrase because this is what I liked about the movie. I used
the phrase human element to signify the emotional parts and development of his
character. At the start, he was monotonous, predictable, and robotic. Sure he
was angry... but that part of Thor was expected. And then he was banished to
earth. I loved it when he acted goofy, vulnerable, and lively. I predicted,
they will use the fish out of water concept when Thor was booted out of Asgard but the human element really brought
something here.
I love
the humor of this movie.
Oops...
how insensitive of me.
*** SPOILERS AT THIS POINT!!!
***
Like I
said, I love the humor of this movie. I feared the seriousness the movie would
bring. I saw the two Incredible Hulk and
Daredevil flicks and both flicks bombed because they never gave the
audience a chance to get captivated with the characters. From the part of Thor
getting tasered to the point where the Thor’s friends strutted in New Mexico where the SHIELD guys were reporting that they
just saw Xena, Robin Hood, and Jackie Chan, the movie’s easy to bear
punch lines made this film wonderful.
Chris Hemsworth is a budget version of Brad Pitt. They basically have the same
features except that Hemsworth isn’t an established star yet. They probably
realized that with Robert Downey Jr.,
Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, and the
manpower behind the big-budgeted film, they need all the money they can save in
this big-budgeted flick. Fact is, expect Hemsworth’s stock to rise up after
this movie. As for his leading lady, you can never go wrong with Natalie Portman. The reigning Oscar Best Actress played the curious
eye candy well in this film. She looked so cute getting googly-eyed whenever
Thor looks at her made Jane Foster a
great character. If you compare Natalie Portman’s character with other Marvel
leading lady characters like Gwyneth
Paltrow (Iron Man) and Liv Tyler
(Hulk), their characters fails in comparison. They made use of Anthony Hopkins (playing as the Asgard
king Odin) well.
Tom Hiddleston playing Loki is a good choice
although I could have “Joker-ed” his character a bit since he is the god of
mischief.
The
only mischief he did was to make a mission to end up as a dutiful son.
Where’s
the mischief with that?
Clark Gregg, the SHIELD guy who is always there (see the Iron Man movies) played his part well. Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) who made a nice account for herself by
cashing in on being snarky and the father image Erik Selvig (played by Stellan
Skarsgard) were also good in the movie. They played their roles well and it
helped Thor’s fish out of water character to further blossom. It seemed Rene Russo was placed in the movie to
have a known star playing a support role. Poor Renee had nothing to work on in
this movie. Thor’s buddies (Ray
Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano, Joshua Dallas, and Jaimie Alexander) could have
been trimmed down to two or three because the Asian guy brought nothing while
the guy that got impaled barely stood out.
I
believe the imposing presence brought about by the portal guy here played by Idris Elba. He was a brute but played
it cool. In some ways, it was like looking at the Asgard version of Mr. T.
Perhaps
the only major flaw in this flick for me was the battle between Thor and the
flame-throwing magical robot. Don’t get me wrong. This was a great scene in the
movie because Thor found his awesomeness. I loved the build up leading to the
transformation and how the humans in the movie reacted to his transformation.
But fact is, the battle upstaged Thor’s battle with Loki. If I was Loki, I
would have had his own set of guards (or his own set of frost giants) to get
Thor’s friends busy (how many people does it take to carry a mystical being to
a mystical hospital). Loki could have used the frosting relic further to
strengthen his attacks. While it was a cool and arrogant touch for Loki to lose
by placing the hammer in his chest, Thor could have just laid Loki unconscious,
charged up his hammer, and hit the bridge with one mighty blow instead of
slowly chunking away on it.
Also,
you could have enjoyed the movie with the 3D glasses. The movie is not just a
visual treat. Thor had an interesting story. A movie with 70 percent acting
meshing with 30 percent of action is not worth the 3D fee. Maybe if this was an
animated movie... perhaps. But fact is it is not.
The
best part of the Thor movie is the moral lesson behind it. Moral lessons are
often disregarded in movies nowadays that they sometimes forget that this is a
good way to build up characters for people to love them in the end. This is
such the case of Thor the character. He started as the arrogant warfreak and he
was literally brought down to earth when his power escaped him. He changed his
act altogether and he is rewarded by the revival of his powers. You see, this
is not just a “win at all costs” or
“good versus evil” or “save everyone and sacrifice yourself”
flick. When you add this to the human element like smiling, striving, and
surviving, then you get a character that works.
All in
all, I had a great time experiencing the movie. The rapport they have with each
other makes me giddy for a Part Two. The story was fine and it intrigued me.
The characters are relatable and the acting is bearable. This is definitely one
of my favourite Marvel movies behind the first Iron Man, the first Spiderman, and the second X-Men flicks.
By the
way, I saw a lot of idiots leaving the cinema house when the credits rolled.
Why won’t people learn that Marvel
flicks always have spoilers at the end of their movies! This is the part where I loved Tom Hiddleston's character.
I’m
going to watch Captain America to
further get psyched on The Avengers
movie!
Game
over!
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