Its been a while, I've been so busy the past few months I've had little time to write full reviews for anything. So for my return, I have decided to review the big blockbuster movie to kick off the 2011 Summer season, Thor!
Now I am a huge Nerd, I love my comic books. I have no problem with them changing certain elements of a comic book property to make it more adaptable to the big screen, or to even enhance the story. Sometimes they succeed, other times they fail. Going into Thor I have read many reviews where some people claim he's not a God, but an Alien, as a way for Marvel to better link the difficult mythological Thor with the more science themed Iron Man, and Hulk for the Avengers movie. This had me worried, but after watching the film I was quite relieved that was not the case.
When it was announced that the Avengers was going to be made into a movie, everyone knew the hardest property to adapt and fit into the theme with the other hero's was Thor. And while certain elements were sacrificed to better tie Thor into the same universe as Iron Man and Hulk, director Kenneth Branagh did a really good job keeping the spirit of Thor and Norse mythology in tack while bridging this character with that of the other Avengers. Basically there are nine realms, or worlds as they sometimes referred to them which make up a kind of Realm tree, at the top of this tree, or the highest realm is Asguard, the "Realm Eternal" where the immortal Asguardians live and keep peace in the 9 realms. But when a war hungry Thor, successor to the thrown of Asguard threatens this peace by attacking the Frost Giants, Odin strips him of his powers and banish him to Midguard (Earth) And while Thor deals with his new Mortality and attempts to reclaim his hammer, his evil brother Loki ceases the throne of Asguard. While some hard core fans may have been disappointed that this film wasn't completely faithful to that of the original comics, I was quite pleased with this interpretation of the character.
All the actors did a good job. Some were amazing, others were just decent, but I cannot think of a single casting that was poor. And while I enjoyed Chris Hemsworth as Thor, it was Tom Hiddleston as Loki who stole the show with his acting. I loved the Warriors Three, but was disappointed that they were overall underused in the film, usually getting hurt or in trouble to build up either Thor or Silf as the better hero's to save them in several different cases.
Kenneth Branagh was a weird choice as director, mostly known for his work in Shakespearian films, some thought Thor was not his kind of project, but he delivered in story and action. Sometimes the Shakespearian back ground seaped through and was blatantly there in the story telling. Asguard was beautifully done. Though it wasn't quite my idea of Asguard as it looked like the child of a random Elvish kingdom from the Lord of the Rings and Corucant from Star Wars. But still beautifully done.
Some of the negative elements about the film, I felt the story was a little rushed. Still well done, but to have Thor casted out from Asguard, finding his humility and reclaiming his powers in a two day span seemed a little unrealistic, and therefore the transformation of the Thor character in the movie seemed rushed. Some of the camera angles were a little weird and off, and being under two hours long, you feel like they could have done so much more and made it longer to better make the story seem complete. You almost feel like important scenes were cut out that really needed to be there to make it more solid.
Is Thor the greatest Comic Book movie to date? No. Is it one of the better comic book movies I've seen? Yes. While following very similar themes in previous comic book movies, it provides many different elements to make it stand out and stand on it's own two feet as a truly unique superhero film. It does more to tie in the Marvel films leading into next years Avengers, thus serving as more of a set up than the previous Iron Man and Hulk movies.
FINAL GRADE: B-
*Note, if you have seen the secret scenes thrown in at the end of the Iron Man movies, be sure to stick around after the credits of Thor as well, for there is another bonus scene. And be sure to keep an eye out for Stan Lee's Cameo*
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