Thor Movie Review

My wife and I went out Saturday night and watched the Thor movie.  Given that this was probably my most anticipated Marvel film yet, you can imagine how excited I was to finally watch it. I decided to put some distance between seeing the film and writing it up so I wouldn't be tempted to review the whole thing with rose-colored glasses. So I took a day off, took care of some other things. But I can't put it off any longer. It's time to break it down in such a way that my own personal feelings about the character and the Marvel film franchise in general would have no chance of influencing my opinion in this review, so I can be honest about its quality.



You guys, it was AWESOME.

I am not kidding here, I loved almost everything about it. So many right decisions went into this thing, so much hard work, and it really paid off.

CASTING

I confess, I went into the film with no small amount of trepidation regarding Chris Hemsworth's ability to play the Thunder God. I don't know what it is, maybe the accent, but I get a very Heath Ledger circa "A Knight's Tale" vibe from him. And Chris is a big guy, to be sure, but in the photos I had seen before the film, he looked kind of puny in that armor. I mean, Thor's a BIG GUY. Like, 7 1/2 feet tall, 500 lbs kind of big. I was worried that would be kind of a catch-22 with the casting here.  Anyone that big is unlikely to be a strong enough actor to really make the character believable. But most good actors aren't going to be big enough to pull off that kind of imposing presence.

Consider me converted. Hemsworth knocked it out of the park.  Was it the exact Thor I knew and loved from the comics? No. Nor should it be. This is a film interpretation, and I say that with absolutely NO amount of excuse-making. I had to put aside my predisposed ideas about what Thor was and realize that I'm watching a relatively young thunder god on screen. Once I was able to put that aside, I was blown away at how perfectly the character was represented on screen. The arrogance, the swagger, but what surprised me the most was the honest, bare-soul humility we eventually would get from Thor, even earlier in the film than I expected. The guy is just so damn likable, it's hard to imagine anyone having doubts about the casting of the lead after actually sitting down and watching the film.

I'm looking forward to seeing Thor interact with the rest of the Marvel pantheon soon.

Most of the rest of the casting was solid. Again, I had doubts about Anthony Hopkins playing Odin. And again, guy knocked it out of the park. One of the biggest "Holy crap" moments occurs early in the film and demonstrates just exactly how imposing Odin can be on the battlefield. Sif was perfect, though I would have loved to have seen more of her. The Warriors Three were actually pulled off a little better than I expected. You can't have a 900 pound Volstagg running around onscreen, I get that. Fandrall appears to have been ripped straight off the pages of the books. My only problem was with Hogun.  See, when I think of Hogun, I think this:

This picture is saved as "Hogun Being Awesome.jpg". Not kidding.

And instead I got a fairly diminutive Asian man spurting raspy lines and striking poses. It almost felt exploitative to me. Like, "Oh that one is Mongolian or something like that, just cast someone and write a few lines for him in a raspy voice."  Not to downplay the actor who played Hogun, I just felt that the character wasn't treated with as much sense as probably should have been.

Pictured: Not a Norse God. But still awesome.

Of course the big controversy over the casting was with Idris Elba as Heimdall.  I've stayed out of that fight as much as I could out of the sheer absurdity of the argument. But, here's the deal.  This is not a film about Norse Gods. It's not. Its about comic book characters who (in their own continuity) inspired the legends of the Norse Gods. There's no reason whatsoever why anyone should criticize the casting of Elba as Heimdall based on the color of his skin. Period.

And for the record, Idris Elba is a pimp in this movie. Just a stone cold badass.  I want to find some audio clips of him talking and use it as my wake up alarm in the morning. I don't even care what he's saying. Could be reading the Asgardian phonebook for all I care.

Natalie Portman as Jane Foster? Better than I expected. I actually kind of liked her in the role. Its not the same Jane from the books, of course. I'm ok with it. Her friend Darcy on the other hand, the comic relief? Eh. Annoying. She's a little TOO cute for what she's doing on screen. Almost a distraction. But ably performed.

Loki? Masterful. Tom Hiddleston IS Loki as far as I'm concerned. I see the guy walking down the street I fully expect him to be wearing that big horned helmet of his.

Anyways, I'm rambling. The film itself was great. A little more fanciful than the Marvel films we've seen so far and THATS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE. We are moving in a very good direction here, and I can only hope the box office sales reflect that direction. I already want to buy a second ticket and go see it again. I want to buy tickets for all my friends and take them to see it. My family. My coworkers.

Well...maybe not my coworkers. Not a very lively bunch, there.

But you get the idea.

If you are a regular reader of the site, you know I don't do scores in my reviews. If I did, this film would rate nearly perfect. I loved it. I'm going to see it again. You should go see it and love it as well.  It's not perfect, but its damn close, and certainly a step in the right direction for comic book interpretations on the big screen.

You can also check out my review of the Thor: God of Thunder video game.. I...was not as favorable of that one.

For Asgard!
~Michael