Thor - The Review

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!