One Liner Review:
An enjoyable superhero movie that works on nearly all levels, including a pretty cool Shakespearean-like story about humility and betrayal.
REVIEW:
Thor is a good, smart superhero movie. It’s smart enough to know that the way to keep things interesting is to constantly spend time in two different worlds, one real and one fantastical. If the movie had only gone to Asgard, the magic god world of Thor, for the beginning and the ending, (like, say the 1987 Masters of the Universe movie,) it would have been a much lesser film. But it doesn’t. It travels back and forth between Asgard and earth for the entire length of the picture, and that goes a long way toward maintaining our interest.
Asgard and the happenings that take place there are the highlights of this movie. After a brief opening with a team of scientists who run over a person out in the dessert, we find ourselves on Asgard for our proper introduction. Then, later on when thor is banished to earth, we go back to those scientists (played by Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgaard, and Kat Dennings), as they run him over. This is where we rejoin the story that we just got a glimpse of at the start of the film.
On Asgard, the movie begins with the ceremony to make Thor the new king. His father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins) is the one running the ceremony in the golden palace of great extravagance. Hopkins is a terrific get for this movie, as an actor who always classed things up. But the fact is, nearly every role is well-cast in this one, which is why all three scientists are played by name actors. Even Thor’s mother, Frida, a character who has nearly know lines, is played by Rene Russo.
During Thor’s crowning of the new king ceremony, there is an attack on Asgard by creatures known as the Frost Giants, and Thor follows it up by going to the land of frost giants and attacking them right back. The problem is, this is against his father’s wishes. To get from one world to another, Thor has to travel on a rainbow bridge and then get transported off by the gate keeper, Heimdal, played by Idris Elba, who is terrific in this role, dressed in golden armor and a cool head piece, with the deepest, darkest voice imaginable. .
There’s some pretty good action sprinkled in throughout the early scenes of the film. First there’s the brief battle when Odin (Hopkins) takes an army to fight the Frost Giants in an early flashback, and then another great action scene when Thor brings his friends to go after the Frost Giants. These are monstrous creatures and the fighting we get against them, which even includes a sort of ice dragon, is all really cool.
As a result of his attack, Thor has threatened the peace between the frost giants and the people of Asgard (which doesn’t seem to really make sense since the frost giants came in and attacked first). But Odin’s point is that the frost giants who attacked were only a few and did not represent their people. Worst of sll, however, is Thor’s disrespect of his father and he yells at Odin for bringing weak and not wanting to attack and destroy the Frost Giants.
Thor meets Jane and her team of scientists. They hope to find answers from him about what they see in space. But there’s a problem. The agents from SHIELD led by Colson (from Iron Man and Iron Man 2,) have confiscated all of their equipment and notes. It’s a testament to this movie that Colson and these agents can do all of this and still not seem like bad guys. Part of this has to do with how nicely Colson handles everything, trying to pay Jane for the property, and later on saying he wasn’t stealing it, but borrowing it.
Meanwhile, back on asgard, Thor’s brother, Loki, finds out the truth about himself and his connection to the frost giants. Odin becomes ill and falls into a sort of coma a leaving Loki to take over as king. He goes to earth to visit Thor in the SHIELD. camp and tells him that their father has died and that their mother has forbidden Thor to come back home. This is all really great stuff. From the fights of Thor against the SHIELD agents at their camp (including a nice first appearance of Hawkeye,) to Loki’s lies and deception, this is all compelling.
And it gets better! Thor’s friends come to earth to get him, and in a desperation move to squash whatever this is, Loki sends down the Destroyer, a giant metal robot that shoots lasers from its face, to kill them. This is where Thor proves himself worthy, once and for all, and gets his hammer back.
Thor of course returns to asgard to have it out with his brother for the climax. but before he leaves earth, He declares his love for jane and promises her that he will return. It feels a little forced. These two have not spent enough time together and have barely kissed. there’s one night where they talk about science vs magic and sleep under the stars, but the movie could have used a little more of that to make their relationship more convincing.
Other than this idea that the romance could have used one or two more scenes, the rest of the movie is pretty terrific. The action is stellar, and that includes everything from the fantastical Frost Giant fights to the down to earth, hand to hand combat at the SHIELD camp. And then there’s the plot, What it does have going for it is a cool shakespearian plot, with all of its kingdom politics, backstabbing and betrayal, and even an interesting story about Loki as a baby and who his true father was. There’s so much to like about this movie and so much going on here. This is when Marvel was really finding its stride and going all out, with smart and clever storylines. Thor is a tremendous success.