Back in my comic book reading/collecting hay days (and I say that knowing full well how silly it sounds since I'm pretty sure those days are still with us or back in full force), my favorite characters tended to be DC denizens. Green Lantern, Swamp Thing, The Flash, Blue Devil, Blue Beetle, Green Arrow, The Question, Captain Atom, Superman...that's how my list would start when asked who my favorite heroes were.
But there were (and still are) some Marvel characters I followed...in order it was always Captain America, Doctor Strange, Thor, Fantastic Four, Avengers and that's pretty much it (although I've added a few in more recent times).
My love of Thor probably came from my elementary school days when I was fascinated by the Vikings and Norse mythology. The first movie I ever made (in 6th grade) was all about the Vikings (it's lost to the ages as it pretty much burned up in the projector after it's first and only viewing). So when I started getting into reading comic books, I soon discovered the God of Thunder and all of his friends.
"Thor" comes to us as part of a massive plan by Marvel Studios to get as many of their heroes onto the big screen in a giant inter-connected universe so we can get "The Avengers" all up there. This process started with 2008's "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk", continued with last year's "Iron Man 2" and concludes this year with "Thor" and "Captain America: The First Avenger". Each of these movies has had to serve several purposes and they've each hit them to varying degrees of success. Today, I'm just looking at "Thor" (but I'll look back at all of them next year when "The Avengers" hits).
"Thor" needs to set up the Marvel version of the Norse mythology, stand on it's own as a self contained story, set itself up as a potential franchise and connect itself to "The Avengers". All of this needs to be done with perfect balance in order to attract both a core audience of comic book fans, fantasy film fans and new viewers. It succeeds at most of this very well.
Slightly different from the typical Super Hero film that starts off with the young hero gaining his powers at around the same time the villain also gains their powers only to follow them on a collision course finishing in a rousing (or lackluster) finale battle, "Thor" begins with a team of scientists chasing some weird storm patterns in the desert of New Mexico. The team consists of Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) and Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings). In middle of the chaos and confusion they run over a man who seemed to come out of the storm. We then get a good long flashback to how this man, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), got there.
Thor and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) are the sons of Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and he is grooming one of them to eventually replace him as King of Asgard. Many years ago there was a war between the Asgardians and the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. But a peace was arranged and kept in place until the day that Odin was to announce Thor as his replacement when a small group of Frost Giants break into Asgard and steal back the source of their power taken during the war. They are easily dispatched, but Thor, being the hot head he is decides to venture to Jotunheim to teach the Frost Giants a lesson. The group consists of Loki, Sif (Jaimie Alexander), Fandral (Joshua Dallas), Hogun (Tadanabou Asano) and Volstagg (Ray Stevenson) and their invasion is a disaster. Luckily, they are saved by Odin who was warned by Asgard's all-seeing, all-knowing bridgekeeper Heimdall (Idris Elba). Odin, angered by Thor's impetuousness, strips him of his power and banishes him to Midgard (Earth) where we pick up with him being hit by Jane's van in the storm.
Thor's landing on Earth, as well as the landing of his magical hammer Mjolnir which contains his powers and can only be lifted by someone worthy, attract the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. who swarm into New Mexico under the leadership of Agent Coulson (played by Clark Gregg again/still). While Coulson and his men try to unravel the hammer's mystery, Thor tries to regain his powers on Earth with Loki ascending to the throne of Asgard in his place. And that's a good place to stop the description of the plot.
Director Kenneth Branagh and his crew have taken many fantastical elements from the comic books that could easily have seemed silly on the big screen and made them look cool. Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge that connects Asgard to the other nine realms, is neither a Rainbow, nor a Bridge, but at the same time encompasses the look of both into parts if it's design (it's more of a giant transporter device with an aiming barrel). Asgard itself is a wonder to behold with all the pomp and circumstance a city where gods live deserves to have. Thor's use of his hammer also comes off looking cool when he uses it to launch himself like a bullet to some location (this is how he flies) or when he just spins it around to clock his enemies in the head.
The casting if near perfect. Hemsworth brings the right balance of arrogance and, later, humility to Thor. Hiddleston's performance as the trickster Loki is Oscar-worthy in my book. He is devious without tipping his hand as to why he's really doing what he's doing and never turns into the scenery-chewing cartoon he could easily be. He is a manipulator of epic proportions. Hopkins brings the right amount of authority to Odin and has thankfully stopped playing the parody of himself that he has more often done than not since 1991's "Silence of the Lambs".
The rest of the cast gets their jobs done with their limited screen time (it's a lot to cram all these characters into one film, and yet I still felt like if they were going to, they could have crammed in one brief scene with the missing and missed Baldar the Brave...hopefully the sequel will just explain he was visiting one of the other nine realms or Hawaii). There are two exceptions here that I would be remiss to mention and it's no real fault of the actors. You could easily strip Kat Denning's Darcy from the film and it would change nothing beyond losing one or two "hip" throw-away one-liners. And Rene Russo's Frigga, Queen of Asgard and Wife of Odin, seems to be there in the same way Billy Dee Williams played Harvey Dent in 1989's "Batman". She's hopefully there for a bigger part in the sequel, but here she looks as if she's waiting for her paycheck (she's a better actress than that).
The story is structured nicely and takes 40 plus years of Marvel Comics stories and blends them into an understandable and logical story that is easy enough for any non-comic book fan to follow while still giving the geeks their gold (mentions of Donald Blake, Bruce Banner and a few other Marvel things abound). Even the inclusion of S.H.I.E.L.D., mostly there just to keep the connections between films going, makes sense here (it has to since it has been so intricately attached to the entire Earth-based part of the story). This connection only falls apart with the two "extraneous" scenes that were obviously included after the fact. Watching Jeremy Renner's "Agent Barton" (better known as the archer Hawkeye in the comics) run around with a bow and arrow while Thor is fighting off soldiers in his quest to get to Mjolnir, while "cool" is obviously an afterthought as he has no interaction with anyone in the film beyond radio contact. And stick around to the very end of the end credits to catch the obligatory Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) scene that connects this film to both "Captain America: The First Avenger", "The Avengers" and whatever sequel to "Thor" that may come our way. It is nothing special and will confuse anyone who isn't familiar with a long history of magical objects in the Marvel Universe.
Branagh has outdone himself and used his Shakespearean background to give Asgard all the pomposity it deserves. He keeps the pace of the story in motion with nary a slow spot to be seen. And structurally this may be his best and "tightest" film since "Dead Again" (let's face it, after "Henry V" his Shakespeare is all over the place and "Mary SHelley's Frankenstein" while fun is a mess). While there are too many writers credited for the film, it doesn't feel like the story passed through five people and you can feel the spine of J. Michael Straczynski's recent run on the comic book through a good chunk of the film (JMS also has a very fun cameo...see if you can guess who he is...Marvel Comics' own Stan Lee also has his obligatory cameo as well). Patrick Doyle's score fits the proceedings well (and may be the first score in a long time that I may actually pick up on CD). And the cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos is always interesting, composed well and easy on the eyes (we saw this in 2D, but there didn't seem to be anything in the film beyond the look of Bifrost that could possibly benefit from the headaches and extra fees for 3D).
This film is easily on par with the better of the previous Marvel Comics films ("Iron Man", "Spider-man 2", "X2" and "Blade") and sets out to do what it must very successfully. As a start to the summer movie season, it couldn't give us a better note to start on. I'm even more excited for "Captain America: The First Avenger" after seeing this. But next up is the one I'm more nervous and excited for..."Green Lantern". Thankfully, Warner changed their marketing on that one and the new trailers give the film the right vibe where that first trailer made me want to not see the film.
Until next time.
Be seeing you.
