Thor – review
As a comic book fan I was thoroughly impressed and entertained by Thor. That is not to say that I feel the same about all comic book films at all. I gnashed my teeth and pulled my hair out during the early Batman films, and let’s not even talk about the disasters that were Daredevil and Elektra! I’d also like to see an adult version of Spiderman some time… but back to Thor.
Director Kenneth Branagh really went the extra mile to keep the characters, atmosphere and locations true to the Thor we all (or at least some of us) know and love from the comics. Thor’s outfit was from the ‘Ultimate Thor/Avengers’ arc which was slightly disappointing only because I went to some trouble to create myself a Thor helmet which I proudly wore around the mall for the movie trip, only to discover that Thor wore no helmet at all throughout the film and a whole pile of youngsters probably thought I was in the wrong cinema or something.
In general films portray a slightly, if not tremendously watered down version of a comic book mythology, which is not surprising when you’re trying to squeeze 30 or 40 years of intricate story telling into just under two hours. Thor I felt was different. The movie incorporated an enormous amount of the original fluff from the comics and even added certain elements that improved the buy-in-ability of the whole fiction. In the movie they downplay the ‘God’ nature of Thor by using, among other things, one of my favourite sceptical quotes by Arthur C Clarke – “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Effectively Thor and his race are really advanced aliens that were worshipped as Gods by less sophisticated societies in the past (Vikings). The whole thing was far more ‘sciencey’ than ‘magicky’ – which I appreciated. Even his body armour was a type of nano-morphing-metalic-skin of some sort.
This movie had it all. For the guys – cool gadgets, one liners, mass destruction, flying tough guys, beer drinking and awesome mixed fighting styles, not to mention the lead actress Natalie Portman… droooooool!!! For the ladies – well, a topless Chris Hemsworth, a smiling Chris Hemsworth, Chris Hemsworth in a cool Thor outfit, etc..
The comedy timing was great! I laughed out loud regularly to the annoyance of a few folk sitting around me. There’s a particularly cool moment where the human Chris Hemsworth becomes Thor and Natalie Portman’s character is, shall we say, impressed. I won’t give it away.
As has been the build-up in the Hulk and Iron Man movies, there were the usual references in Thor to the existence of… well, Hulk and Iron Man! And with Captain America coming up it is clear that there are plans afoot to assemble the Avengers soon, and I absolutely can’t wait!!! Under any other circumstances I’d be telling the world how DC is way cooler than Marvel, but for today, congratulations Marvel – job well done!
This movie is a must see for absolutely everyone.
