Movie Review: Thor 2011

Today’s guest-review is by Dave from The Longest Way Home Travel Blog.

Thor, don’t miss the thunder god’s marvel adaption.

Comic book superheros movies are a hit and miss affair for me. While The Incredible Hulk was a slap to the intelligent movie goers face with it’s remakes, Batman: The Dark Knight made up for it in droves. While we wait for another remake of Spiderman, a relaunching of Superman; really all I care about is Ironman 3. So what then of Thor? I saw the previews and was not impressed. A cartoon revived to the big screen with a blond guy and a big hammer. Surely it’s doomed to be forgotten about? Mortal reader, you would be wrong in presuming Thor should be avoided. I only went to see this as I like old legends, or which the Marvel comic was created from. Yes, Thor actually showed up in the Germanic mythology history books before moving into legendary Nordic status. Something many an old movie has failed to bring successfully to the screen. Why? Well, perhaps they don’t understand Nordic mythology, big hammers, or simply don’t care.

 

Todays movie changes that, and as proof Thor has hammered it’s movie competition this year; hitting the number one stop in all charts. Castout from Asgard by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) for being a arrogant upstart, Thor (Chris Hemsworth)  is sent to Earth powerless. But, (and this is the genius of the movie) Thor is still an arrogant god. And so the injection of god humor is brought in. Now a mortal, the thunder god ends up being the subject of scientist Jane Foster (Nattalie Portman), and realizing he is mortal, Thor tames himself and learns some important lessons. During all this however there are a host of other struggles going on. Asgard is being invaded by the Frost Giants (no really that’s their name, and they are kinda cool too), a traitor, and a lost heir to the throne.

All this and we still get Thor’s group of trusted friends who come to earth to find him to hilarious results. Imagine a Thunder God in a roadside cafe, when all of a sudden his four friends in full God like costumes show up and knock on the glass door with big dumb smiles and waves. A dead pan funny moment. During all this Thor’s arrogance is combated to the viewer with a sense of humor rarely seen today. The movie has some serious messages or arrogance, social status, racism etc, but the humor it’s portrayed in makes it incredibly enjoyable.  The bad points? Well, you really don’t need to see this movie in 3D, there’s nothing great about it in that sense. I suspect this was only done just in case it flopped, which it didn’t. The other bad point is Sir Anthony Hopkins performance. Yes, the great actor comes off not taking his role seriously and just running through his lines. I bet he wished he tried harder now.

In terms of eye candy, yes lady’s Chris Hemsworth is semi clad in many parts of the firm. And for the gents there’s Natalie Portman who’s well … there, in nicest sense of the word. Missing out on Thor due to misconceptions, a bad trailer and for the pain of another comic book superhero movie would be a mistake. Thor is an excellent film that does not take it’s legendary history too seriously, thus it delivers a humorous action packed ride that will no doubt hearken a much anticipated sequel. To which I say, the sooner, the better. By the way, for those in the know, yes there are several “Avenger” mentions in this film. And yes, Thor will be in it.

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