Thor - pronounced Th-or

B (7.4)


From Iron Man with the exception of X-Men it seems like every Marvel film is doing a film within a film. The film is any one of the Avengers and within that is the Avengers staring these superheroes, coming in a year's time. And I really don't enjoy watching these films while thinking of the upcoming movie because I thought it was a tired and pointless marketing strategy  from Marvel with limited cameos and constant references of the Avengers.

Thor is one of the few films within a film released by Marvel along with Captain America and Iron Man. Chris Hemsworth plays Thor, a godlike son of a powerful god/leader of Asguard, Odin (Anthony Hopkins). When Thor and his group which includes his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) comes into Asguard's former planet runned by Frostblasts (yep, try laughing at that) they... um.... just destroy everyone on the planet. Odin banishes Thor to Earth thereby strips his powers and right to where he lands is a group of scientists led by Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). With his banishment, Loki becomes leader when Odin somewhat have health problems and Loki gave some power to the Frostblasts).

Thor is pretty much fun popcorn fare with a suprisingly exquisite direction from Kenneth Branagh whose usual flair is period and Shakespearean pieces. The visual effects are grandiose despite the fact that it's made from CGI and so has the art direction since the look of Asguard is so pure.

Chris Hemsworth is both charismatic and egotistic as the God of Thunder but Tom Heddleston as Loki such an interesting character because he's riddled with jealousy and anger towards Thor and Odin. Despite the fact that there's a lack of depth and underuse in their characters, Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman are wonderful. There's a cameo from another Avenger but I wasn't offended because it was there for a short second.

That said and there are some flaws that can be noticed. This includes the 3D which is great but is unnecessary to the whole film and makes the film look cheap. I like the Shakespearian overtones but it only exist in one world. I.e. the Asguard while on Earth, it doesn't feel special that would make Thor or any of the human characters effective to the story. I feel like if the human characters were away from Earth and are in Asguard, then we would become attached. But Asguard is not perfect. Not a single thing could be perfect when you have hammy dialogue spoken by Thor that can be so laughable. However on Earth, the dialogue feels so normal, it's inert. In conclusion, it's the changes that could've muddled the film.

Thankfully this movie doesn't takes itself too seriously given the amount of goofy humour especially from Jane Foster's assistant (Kat Dennings). But sometimes the jokes fall flat to its knees and ultimately becomes a distraction.

I really enjoyed the film based on a fair amount of escapism. IT has some flaws and before I watched the movie, I went with low expectations because I wasn't familiar with the comic books. This is a visceral state of comic book movie where it gradually follows or take mythology as their influence. This is better than the Iron Man series but is not on the level of the Spiderman trilogy. In Thor, it's on Norse mythology (and yes there is proof that there was literally a god named Thor.). This officially kicks off the summer of movie where it should kicks off for each first May release.