Marvel Hath a Hit with Mighty Thor
Over the past ten years we’ve seen a glut of superhero origin stories. These days it’s tougher to bring to the silver screen any hero who’s been in waiting in the wings all this time; you’ve got to keep it fresh and avoid hitting the well-tread tropes as plainly, otherwise the film becomes formulaic and fails to do the character justice.
Marvel Studios has been experimenting with translating the cross-over (a staple of the comic book medium where characters and events from one property shows up in others) to a series of movies that would culminate in a film about a team of superheroes, Avengers. Iron Man and Incredible Hulk pulled it off to the delight of fans, mostly with scenes tacked-on after the credits. Iron Man 2 was the first to try integrating all the elements of its own plot with pieces of a greater puzzle – and nearly buckled under its weight.
This year brings us Thor and Captain America. The latter will be released in a couple months, but the former, about a mythical Norse god of thunder, seemed the most difficult to translate into the world established in Iron Man (not to mention the potential cheese factor of a stoic hunk spouting Old English while bearing winged helmet and over-sized mallet).
It is with great surprise and pleasure that I tell you Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet), is the most enjoyable traditional superhero film since the first Iron Man. There have been better superhero films in recent years, including Iron Man, but especially The Dark Knight, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Kick-Ass, and Watchmen. After Iron Man 2, The Green Hornet, and Super, it’s refreshing to see a superhero movie that is actually fun to watch.
Thor is about a race of beings from another realm known as Asgard that has been mistaken by our Nordic ancestors as gods. These Asgardians are ruled by Odin (Anthony Hopkins) with his queen Frigga (Rene Russo, out of retirement for a minor role) and his sons Thor (Chris Hemsworth, a.k.a. Kirk’s father in the Star Trek reboot) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) by his side. Just as Odin is about to pass his kingdom on to Thor, their fortress is infiltrated by the Frost Giants, a race the Asgardians have held a tenuous peace with after years of war. Thor views this as a violation and gathers his friends and brother to travel to the Frost Giants’ world to investigate the why’s and how’s of the breach. Thor’s arrogance gets the best of him and ends up breaking the peace between the races. Ashamed, Odin strips Thor of his power and banishes him to Earth until he can prove himself worthy once again.
An astrophysicist named Jane Foster (Natalie Portman, both beautiful and brainy here) accidentally hits Thor with her truck immediately upon his arrival here. She becomes intrigued by the strange hunk and decides to help him. Foster’s research happens to be on the path to discovering the existence of Asgard. Thor’s mighty hammer, Mjolnir (mi-yol-nir), was also thrown to Earth by Odin and is found by the nearby populace. This attracts the international organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D., featured heavily in Iron Man 2, who then commandeer the area for their own investigation.
Meanwhile, Loki, who is known as the God of Mischief, discovers he was born a Frost Giant, conspires with the chilly colossi, and manipulates to take the throne of Asgard (his plan gets a bit confusing later on). Thor, who is clueless about Loki’s scheme, gives Foster’s research a nudge in return for her help taking back his hammer.
Branagh has plenty to juggle here and seems to have learned from the mistakes of Iron Man 2, because where the S.H.I.E.L.D. elements stitching all these movies together seemed forced in that film, here it’s integrated much more smoothly. Branagh responds to concerns over how to introduce the God of Thunder to a world established in Iron Man quite well: he keeps the otherworldly conflict and characters mostly separate from Earth. When they do cross over to our world, instead of downplaying their conspicuous fish-out-of-water nature, Branagh calls it out (that becomes a great source of humor in the film).
What’s more, Thor is different from your garden-variety superhero origin story in that both the hero is already a mighty superman when we meet him and there are some Shakespearian family issues between father Odin and the two brothers. This is what made Branagh a great choice for directing Thor, despite his inexperience with action-heavy blockbusters (he does handle action competently here, despite a few incoherent and tightly-framed quick-cuts seen so frequently in action films today).
If we look at the amount of plot elements being juggled here – a conflict on Asgard between two alien species, Thor’s banishment from Asgard and growth toward humility, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s interest in Thor’s hammer, Jane Foster’s research and interest in Thor, Loki’s scheme and transformation toward villainy, the Shakespearian family conflict, and the fish-out-of-water comedy – it is quite amazing how well Branagh and screenwriters Ashley Miller (Fringe), Zack Stentz (Fringe), and Don Payne (Rise of the Silver Surfer) pull it all off without being weighed down.
Unfortunately, with so much going on, there is bound to be a handful of characters that get lost in the mix. Rene Russo’s Frigga, who had at least one scene cut from the film, is one. However, the biggest waste here is Kat Dennings, who plays a tag-along intern named Darcy – a role she compared to a Scooby-Doo character. Darcy is clearly intended to provide comic relief, spouting lines about Facebook and iPods. Some of it works, but not nearly as much as the situational comedy in the film. Darcy exemplifies the superfluous character: one who could be cut from the entire script with zero loss to the story or comedic relief. It’s a shame because Kat Dennings proved herself to have an appealing presence in 2008’s Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Fans of her work in that film will be greatly disappointed to see her in such a disposable role here.
Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston, on the other hand, give star-making performances as Thor and Loki. Hemsworth not only plays a hero we can get behind despite his arrogance, but also executes some physical comedy without being cheesy or ridiculous. Thor is made the fool by his own arrogance, yet earns our enthusiasm when fighting with hammer or fist. Hiddleston plays a role that is in the classic villain-to-be mold, yet avoids going over-the-top with it. Loki is sort of a larger-than-life character; however, being an actor of the stage, Hiddleston keeps his performance grounded in the familial relationships. It will be interesting to see what sort of mischief he creates in future Marvel films.
Thor momentarily lacks logic or clarifies the rules of its world. S.H.I.E.L.D. suddenly takes interest in Foster’s research after inexplicably connecting it to Thor’s hammer. Something happens to Odin that isn’t explained beforehand and initially causes confusion with some audiences. A bridge connects Asgard to an observatory / gate to other worlds, but it’s never explained what happens if one were to fall off the bridge. Would one keep falling? Float off into space? Or land on some random planet?
Yet all of that feels incredibly slight given the movie – and all its elements – work rather smoothly and enjoyably. Marvel Studios can confidently mark this as another success in their experiment – both on its own and as a part of a whole. They nailed it.
The film was shot in 2D, transferred to 3D, and released in both options. I saw the film in 2D, however I’ve heard reports that the 3D experience falls prey to the common issue of feeling like a veil is over your eyes; the brights are dimmer and the darks are darker. I recommend planning for a 2D showing.
7/10
Should you see it? Buy tickets (2D)
Thor is now in theaters in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D.