Thor Movie Review
And the start of the 2011 summer movie going season is upon us with the release of the year’s first blockbuster, Thor. Thor is a Marvel Studio creation and will tie in with the Marvel Cinematic Universe that leads to next year’s Avengers. Thor has been (at least for me) a hotly anticipated movie this year. With veteran Shakespearean actor and director Kenneth Branagh at the helm, I thought we would have a fresh new feel to the Marvel universe and give us something different. For better or for worse we definitely got a new kind of hero.
The movie is quite simply broken up into three acts, with some good highs and some parts that just seem to lag on. The first part of the film takes place in Asgard, home of Thor, his friends, and family. We begin with Odin teaching is sons, Thor and Loki, about a greater responsibility to the universe and how they must safe guard the lives of others. Odin is shown to be a very powerful and wise king but Thor being young and eager to prove himself worthy of his father’s throne takes up a battle against the Frost Giants. For starting a war with another realm, Odin strips Thor of his power, takes from him his famous hammer Mjolnir (pronounced: mee-yol-neer), and banishes him to Earth as a mortal. But as a saving grace, Odin sends Mjolnir to Earth so that Thor would be able to earn his power back. This first act is where the film truly shines. We get to see sweeping views of Asgard, we see Thor wield his hammer as if it was feather light, but we see the keen dynamics between Odin, Thor, and Loki.
Our second act, predictably so, takes place on Earth with Thor trying to come to terms with his now mortal form. After meeting Jane Foster and her team in the desert of New Mexico, he learns that his hammer has been found near by and tries to reclaim his lost power. The hammer is surrounded by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who Thor has to fight through to try and get his weapon back. He reaches Mjolnir but is unable to lift it from his resting place. He comes to the realization that he will not return home. Meanwhile, back on Asgard, Loki has taken up the throne as Odin has fallen ill. In a quest for power, Loki (trying to leave his brother’s shadow) forbids Thor from returning, but those loyal to Thor travel to Earth to try and bring him back. The parts on Earth seem to really do little but add some comic relief as Thor tries to adapt to the world, and the human characters are quite forgettable despite a developing “love story”.
Thus begins our final act, what I call “The Redemption”. Loki learns of Thor’s friends trying to rescue him and sends the Destroyer (a large robot-like thing that shoots a blast of energy from its face) to wipe out everything around them, including all humans. Thor, accepting of his mortality, tries to evacuate the small town of New Mexico they are in and save the humans around him. As the Destroyer marches in, Thor pleads to his brother to stop the destruction, to let the innocents live and take his life instead. And in this act of ultimate sacrifice Mjolnir returns to Thor who reclaims his power and stops the Destroyer on Earth. Thor returns to Asgard to take back his place on the throne and end Loki’s influence on the world. The third act is a mix of some great action and battle scenes but is also the “climax” of the love story between Thor and Jane Foster. As he leaves for Asgard, he promises to return to Earth. I just couldn’t buy this great connection that Thor had Jane after such a short stint on Earth. The final act is a mixed bag for me.
The saving grace to the whole movie is the commitment that all the actors put into their roles. Chris Hemsworth takes the role of the God of Thunder and owns it from the very beginning, not being afraid to look or sound silly. Anthony Hopkins has the gravitas that it took to pull off his role of Odin, and Tom Hiddleston played the silver tongued Loki perfectly.
All in all, I enjoyed Thor but I suppose I had higher expectations for the film than I thought was delivered upon. The real worry for me is how the film is going to tie in with the Avengers because it has such a different feel than Iron Man or The Incredible Hulk. Other than the use of S.H.I.E.L.D. and clearly pushing the fact that Hawkeye makes a cameo, Thor doesn’t feel like it belongs in the same universe as the rest of the Marvel world. I would have to place Thor as least enjoyable of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far but it is worth a look.
