Tagline: Courage is immortal.
Curiosity: Overqualified cast and crew makes a wiz-bang comic book movie.
Plot: Thor (Chris Hemsworth, who I just realized rocked it in his one scene as Captain Kirk’s dad in the Star Trek reboot) is a totally ballin’ god of thunder. He’s got a sweet beard and everybody loves him. He’s about to take over as king of the magical land of Asgard from his father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins, who seems to have recovered nicely from The Wolfman), when a trio of Frost Giants infiltrate the palace. Frost Giants and Asgardians have an uneasy truce after a long way, and in response to this insubordination, Thor and his friends attack the Giants at home and nearly spark a second war until Odin intervenes. Infuriated with his son, Odin banishes Thor to Earth until he can learn how to not be such a knee-jerk asshole.
Then Jane (Natalie Portman) hits Thor with her car. Repeatedly.
Thoughts: Like the 2008 reboot The Incredible Hulk, Thor is about as good as it can be with a source material that I’m not particularly interested in. If anything, it’s superior to Hulk in that director Kenneth Branagh manages to take a way denser backstory and streamline it for mainstream audiences. Thor is several different movies. It’s a fantasy epic a la Lord of the Rings, with a dense mythology and a dash of psychedelic imagery. It’s also a comic book movie, with superpower and Marvel tie-ins. And when Hemsworth and Portman are left alone, it turns into Kate & Leopold.
But Branagh juggles all of these elements, never letting a single angle overwhelm the picture. The problem is that Thor at times comes off as manic and workmanline, jumping from action set pieces rapid fire while still shoehorning in human drama. It’s never boring, but it’s also never quite as fun Iron Man.
Still, the film gets a lot right. Like I wrote earlier, it takes a dense story and strips it to the essentials. Every character gets enough screen time for us to understand their importance and motivations [SPOILER: The lone exception is a new Marvel character that just kind of appears out of nowhere with little introduction. If I wasn’t familiar with Marvel comics, I’d probably be confused by such a high profile actor showing up for 10 seconds]. The film is heavy on fantasy without drowning the audience in explanation. And Kat Dennings shows up every few minutes with a spacey one-liner!
Thor isn’t quite an all-consuming blockbuster like Iron Man or The Dark Knight. But I suspect it will hold up on repeat viewings. I also have to say that Branagh found a worthy lead in Hemsworth. Dude strikes the right balance between bravado and ridiculous. He’s unafraid to go big with Thor, but he never tips over into melodrama. He also handles the bits of comedy Branagh slips in adeptly, so much so that my fiancee and I are still cracking up about those scenes a day later. I loved watching him gaze deeply into Stellan Skarsgård's eyes whilst drinking a shot/beer combo. I loved watching him pal around with Asgardian friends. I especially loved watching him get hit by Natalie Portman's car over and over. Also, that boy is cut. Yowza.
Side note #1: This movie does not need to be in 3-D.
Side note #2: The brouhaha about Norse gods being played by non-Nordic actors is stupid. Branagh cast this film based on skill, not skin tone, and it paid off.
Reflection: You know you’re fully in the Whole Foods cult when you can recognize random objects in the background like dish soap and know how good/bad they are for the environment.
