Thor Review

[philosoraptor42]

Okay, I actually saw this a couple of weeks ago, but I just haven't been in the mood to do a review. Still with two different people on my f-list now offering reviews (which I haven't yet read), I feel like I ought to contribute sooner rather than later.

So.... Thor. Well the trailer was great and I was surprised to see that they said "directed by Kenneth Branagh". Now this wasn't a positive for me at all. I wasn't thinking "Oooh I wonder what it'll be like for a guy who mainly favours Shakespearean stuff to take a stab at superheroes". No, instead I was thinking "I really hope this won't be as horrendous as his Frankenstein movie (with the all-too-accurate tag-line "Be Warned")". Still, like I said, the trailer looked good.

As the film begins we have a monologue to introduce us to the backstory. Nevertheless, the backstory is illustrated by plenty of action onscreen. While some have worried that they are changing the norse gods into aliens, it must be noted that it always keeps that somewhat ambiguous (though on the other hand, they don't seem to consider themselves to be gods). In the end it's quite a clever idea. They are powerful beings who protect Earth and various realms (all of which seem to be song titles on Therion's awesome "Secret Of The Runes" album) and it's all wonderfully von Däniken-esque. But yeah, perhaps if my religion knowledge was a little stronger on this, perhaps I'd be a little more upset. Who knows?

The movie begins with Thor landing on Earth and then backtracks in order to tell us how he got there. I thought this was an annoying decision. In the "previously" section we see some conflict with the Frost Giants and a rather cool little fight sequence, but rather than worrying about what will happen later, we already know that Thor is going to get sent to Earth as a result of it all. There could have been more to it than that, but sadly there wasn't. As such a rather large chunk at the beginning feels like annoying filler.

When Thor is on Earth, we get the "norse god out of water" story that we were expecting from the beginning. As part of this we have Stellan Skarsgård who graces this cheesy movie with his immense talent and really helps us to get over the silliness. Part of his role in the movie is to be familiar with the old myths and also pretty sceptical about them. He doesn't have to explain anything to us, but it means that the Earth-dwelling human characters don't simply react with an ignorant "who?" (or, even worse, have to get their entire explanation from Thor himself). Stellan Skarsgård provides the main characters with an off-camera explanation so we don't have to worry about it, while at the same time having a rather more knowing reaction to Thor's otherwise baffling references to his home in Asgard.

So yeah, I won't spoil precisely how Thor makes a fool of himself when he lands on Earth, but needless to say, it's blooming hilarious. The inevitable arrival of his companions is pretty awesome too. Sadly, the biggest problem is that everything about the movie is a little too inevitable. The weird robot thing that people may recognise from the trailer (and if not, that's probably all the explanation you need anyway) becomes the centre piece of a pretty major showdown. Sadly we can all see how it's going to end. The plot simply isn't complicated enough for anything to seriously surprise us.

Perhaps the only wild card in the movie is Loki who, as Thor's "trickster" brother, is pretty mild-mannered and subtle. I'm pretty sure that when I encountered him in the Marvel Alliance videogame, he was cackling just like the cartoon version of Skeletor. In the movie, he actually seems pretty novel in that his attempts to mislead everyone seem genuinely likely to succeed, albeit also seeming a little self-contradictory and convoluted at times. (In fact I felt Loki's whole style seemed suspiciously similar to that of Edmund in Shakespeare's "King Lear". Or is it just me?)

Loki's plotting felt a little odd throughout and it would have been good if it had paid off in the end. I don't think it really did. Thor's experience on Earth was also pretty much what you'd expect. But worse than all the by-the-numbers plot was the by-the-numbers love interest. Thor ends up falling in love with Natalie Portman. Why does he fall in love with her? Um... no idea. Because she's there I guess. Seriously, there's absolutely no chemistry between them, there's no romance and at most there's a sense of chivalry when she's in danger. So yeah, basically she's a damsel in distress for him to rescue - oh goody. (Except that she just takes on that role without really being in a lot of danger.)

Before I finish this review up, I must ask how the heck Idris Elba (star of the UK tv series "Luther" - which was a bit meh - and more famously Stringer Bell from "The Wire" - which was awesome) manages to make his character of "guardian of the Bifröst" into such a badass? It's like "heck, I can only do what my master tells me to, but you know I'm a badass anyway."

So yeah, overall I liked this movie. However, I didn't think it was great. I think it would probably work best on DVD. Basically it's main appeal is its sense of fun and without that, it wouldn't have been anything like so satisfying. The plot has very little to offer, but the style and the humour does a great job of carrying the audience along. The movie doesn't drag, but it always feels like it's promising something a bit more that it never really delivers. Based on the good humour of the movie, I'm giving it credit as a solidly "good" movie rather than the "slightly lacking" 3.5 that my review might otherwise have suggested.

One thing I've perhaps forgotten to mention is that the whole thing looks gorgeous. When you are being introduced to this mythical world it does no harm that everything is shiny and beautiful. The events in the movie are substantially more predictable than the backdrops.

4/5