From the get-go, my biggest fears centered around the character of Thor. In my opinion, he was the member of this group that would be the hardest to translate to a movie screen in a believable way. Then, assuming that you accomplished that great task, he is also the most difficult member to fit seamlessly into a team with the other characters.
Think about it. You start with Tony Stark, who is basically just a normal guy with some awesome tech. Add to that Captain America, another normal guy who just happened to receive some great abilities after taking part in a crazy science experiment. You've also got people like Hawkeye, Black Widow and Nick Fury; all of whom are just normal people with vast amounts of military training.
Now, try to fit a Norse God into that mix and make it seem believable. Go ahead. Just try it.
Do you see the problem now?
Going into this film, Director Kenneth Branagh had to face those two issues head on. He needed to make Thor an interesting and believable character in his own right, and then he had to make it so that the fantastical world that Thor comes from can seamlessly fit in with the rest of the Marvel movie universe that had been established in Iron Man. These are really difficult tasks, and I worried greatly about Branagh's ability (or any other directors' really) to achieve them.
Having now seen Thor, I can happily say that Branagh has accomplished both of these tasks about as well as they could have been done.
Thor is by no means a perfect film. I definitely have my small quibbles with it here and there, but you have to remember that you can't really judge this film entirely as a stand-alone film. While this is definitely made to be a self-contained story, it was at the same time made as a building film to something else. As a result, there are parts of the film that don't entirely make sense unless you're aware of what has come before, and what is going to be coming later. Take SHIELD, for example. They feature prominently into this film's plot, but it's never really explained who they are or what they do. It's sort of expected that the audience is already familiar with SHIELD and Agent Coulson (who appeared in both Iron Man films).
One could easily pick apart some of these plot issues if they were judging Thor in a vacuum, but to do so would miss some of what Marvel is trying to do here. These are all small issues though. The key focus here is introducing the character of Thor and the world he comes from and making them relatable to the audience. Here is where I think Branagh excels. With the exception of the opening scene, the film spends the first 30 minutes or so entirely in Asgard, developing the character history of Thor, explaining what Asgard is and how all of the characters from that world are interrelated. We get to see Thor interact with Loki before they start to fight. We get to see Thor interact with his father in a very Father & son way.
All of this makes Thor an understandable character. Sure, he's a god from a fantasy world, but he also has a family and friends and relationships that he has to work on, just like the rest of us. He also has faults, and they're big ones too. At the beginning of the film Thor is a bit of a dick. He's brash, arrogant, headstrong and stubborn. He's overconfident in his own abilities and he doesn't stop to think about the consequences of his actions. These character flaws lead him to being stripped of his powers and banished to Earth. The story of the film from that point on is about him coming to terms with the fact that he doesn't know everything like he thinks he does and accepting that he must be a better man in order to be worthy of the powers and the responsibilities that he must eventually claim as King of Asgard.
The focus on this growth of character is pivotal in making Thor likable and relatable. Once he shows up on earth, he is instantly knocked off his self-imposed pedestal. Over the course of the middle acts of the film, he gets knocked down a lot, hit by some cars, shot up with drugs and even arrested and interrogated. Watching Thor have to suddenly accept that he no longer has the power to do as he pleases is a great thing to see. And to top it off, he totally does not understand how Earth works.
They really play up the "fish out of water" element as Thor tries to adjust to his new surroundings. It leads to some genuinely funny moments and some classic lines, especially when he goes into a pet store looking for something. I won't ruin the line here, but just trust me, it's really funny. There is a lot of comedy in the second act of Thor, as a result of these awkward moments he has. It's not done so much so that it gets obnoxious, thankfully. It was a nice touch though and was well handled to make the story funny without being too silly.
The relationship with Natalie Portman and her initial attraction to Thor seemed a bit strange to me. It's not as forced as Anakin and Padme's relationship in the Star Wars Prequels, but it does have a slight feel of that in one or two scenes. To be honest though, I was nerd-crushing on actress Kat Dennings' portrayal of college intern and Natalie's assistant Darcy Lewis to really care what was going on between Thor and Portman's character. Maybe it's just me here and my personal tastes in women speaking, but I was personally hoping that Thor would go with Darcy because she was by far the cuter, more entertaining character.
As for everything else, it was about what I expected from the film after seeing the Trailers. Anthony Hopkins as Odin is great. Loki is a giant douche bag like he should be. The Frost Giants are just sorta there as a plot device to get things moving. The Destroyer is pretty wicked when he finally does show up. The battles are pretty sweet. Stan Lee has a great cameo. There are a number of great nerd shout outs (Donald Blake, Hawkeye being called by his actual name, etc).
I would have liked to have seen a little less CG in some of the Asgard scenes, but I can understand that it is sort of necessary when shooting a film in a fantasy setting. I really loved how the Rainbow Bridge looked though, and the way the portals between the worlds worked is really cool too.
All in all, I was really happy with how Thor turned out. I wouldn't say it was as amazing as the first Iron Man was, but I'd put it on par with Iron Man 2 (which I still liked a lot). I really hope Thor does well because now that the back story has been explained, I'd love to see what a Thor sequel would look like.
Final Grade: B+
Many thanks go to James Sime, the owner of Isotope -The Comic Book Lounge in San Francisco (seriously, possibly the coolest comic book store ever) for posting ticket info about the early screening of Thor which enabled me to write this review before the film even came out.
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