Thor (**½)
Directed by: Kenneth Brannagh
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman, Tom
Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård,
Kat Dennings, Clark Gregg, Idris Elba, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson, Jaimie
Alexander, Rene Russo, Joshua Dallas, Tadanobu Asano
Seen: May 18th 2011
**½
Out of ****
Thor has quite a few plot-points to uphold in its 114 minutes, stretching
across 3 realms and just as many races. The 3 realms: Asgard, home of the gods;
Jotunheim, home of the frost giants; and earth. The main plot handles the arch
between Thor (Hemsworth) and his brother Loki (Hiddleston), and their ambition
to ascend the throne in Asgard once Odin (Hopkins) is unable to continue as
king. Loki takes a rather convoluted route to realise his plan though, which I’ll
not expand on in this reveiw.
Thor starts with a history lesson, telling of a battle between Asgard
and Jotunheim in 965 A.D., the Frost Giants were defeated and their source of
power, the Casket of Ancient Winters, was seized by Asgard. The battle is similar
to Helm’s Deep in The Lord of the Rings, and the realm of the Frost Giants,
both here and later in the movie, is represented as an impressively stark
antithesis to Asgard, which is all golden streets, light, and beauty (and,
unintentionally, somewhat plastic). In the present Thor’s ascension to the
throne is interrupted by a Frost Giant attempt to recover the Casket, and
ignoring Odin’s orders, Thor goes to Jotunheim to confront their leader Laufey
(Feore). With him is Loki, his childhood friend Sif (Alexander), and the
Warriors Three; Volstagg (Stevenson), Fandral (Dallas), and Hogun (Asano). This
does not go well, and ends up in Odin saving the 5 from Jotunheim, decimating
the fragile peace treaty between the two worlds.
Thor is banished to earth and stripped of his powers (and his
legendary hammer Mjolnir). He ends up in a small New Mexico town, where he
meets a few atmospheric scientists; Jane Foster (Portman), the lead researcher,
Darcy Lewis (Dennings), her assistant, and Dr. Erik Selvig (Skarsgård), her mentor.
Mjolnir was cast out by Odin to a point not far from here, and before Thor can
attempt recovering it, S.H.I.E.L.D., under agent Phil Coulson (Gregg, in his
role from the Ironman movies as well as the upcoming Avengers), have a facility
built around it. Thor tries to retrieve Mjolnir, but his powers are gone and
Odin has restricted use of Mjolnir to only the worthy. Thor’s friends attempt
to save him from earth, and Loki, Asgard’s new ruler because of Odin’s physical
weakness, sends a Destroyer to stop them and eliminate Thor. This fight is only
the introduction to quite the battle between Thor and Loki, and culminates in
the near-destruction of Jotunheim.
Thor as a movie looks good, but never feels urgent or threatening enough
to compete with other comic book movies. It is too far removed from reality,
where movies like X-Men and Ironman are more “present”. No-one is ever in real
danger, and at one point in time I thought a particular dive from a destructive
ray of fire seemed... fake. As if Chris Hemsworth was told to do a rolling
dive, the special effects will be added later (which it is – but you shouldn’t
think it while watching). The earth sequence was long-winded with little pay-off,
as only a very small town, mostly evacuated, is threatened for a few minutes –
the stakes for humanity are never raised, only for Thor, for a minute. The final
fights in Asgard are impressive, with beautiful environments realised by the
special effects team. In the end though, Thor doesn’t feel like much more than
an old-school comic book movie with little real contemporary relevance – and not
even a very good one at that.
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