Thor

Yes!  I got to the theater again!  On opening day!  Yay!
Ahem.  Moving on.  The short review is that Thor was a pretty good but certainly
not great film.  There was no point during the movie that I felt like there was
something just utterly ridiculous going on (given the premise of course), a
handful of things that were enjoyable but at the end of the credits, it left
with me a bit hollow.  Not that there was anything in particular, just a sense
that the movie could have been…deeper.  Before I chase down that rabbit trail,
let’s talk about the movie itself.
First, the good.  The thing that most impressed me about the movie was the
acting.  Chris Hemsworth did a great job playing Thor, pulling off the arrogant
uber-powerful Thor at the beginning and the humbled really-tough-human in the
middle and the humble uber-powerful Thor at the end.  Chronologically, the
lesson learning was a bit on the quick side but Hemsworth makes it believable.
Tom Hiddleston also does a great job playing Loki.  Combined with his
sympathetic performance the dialogue makes you wonder at his true motivations,
even until the end of the movie.  The only thing that’s absolutely clear is that
he really, really doesn’t like Thor and will do most anything to kill him.  For
the most part everyone else does a good job filling out their roles, with the
standouts being the characters of Heimdal and Agent Caulson.  Neither have large
roles but both are necessary to the story.  Finally, there was a brief and
highly superfluous cameo by Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye.  Basically, he was just
there as an Easter egg for us comic nerds but if his brief performance is any
indication, we are in for a real treat when comes back next year for the
Avengers.  Renner brings a quiet intensity to the screen that not many can
match.
The story is quite straightforward and is done well, going back and forth
between Asgard and New Mexico without feeling either choppy or forced, a real
testament to the screen writers, director, and editors.  It is basically the
story of how Thor grows up, moving from powerful and arrogant princeling to a
wiser and humbler man worth of being king.  As you can tell from the trailer,
the transformation takes place on earth after being banished for starting a war
(a war we see curiously little of).  While on earth, Thor learns humility,
respect for others and self-sacrifice.  Like I said, it happens pretty quickly
but to be fair, he’s helped along by the trauma of no longer being worthy to
wield his hammer and Loki who came and told a series of lies that would drive
anyone to introspection.

We also see the further development of SHIELD as a force to be reckoned with as
it quickly shows up and sets up shop around the hammer, which of course no one
but someone worthy can wield.  Not to mention the after-credits scene where we
find that SHIELD has well…I won’t spoil it, although my fellow nerds are already
quite aware of what I’m talking about.
Now, for the bad.  First, Natalie Portman.  Her giggles and generally girly-ness
seem a bit forced.  Not that she has a lot to do but she probably hasn’t had as
bad a performance since Revenge of the Sith.  There was also a little too-much
goofy-ness with “Lady Sif and the Warriors Three,” especially when they show up
on Earth.  It isn’t Jar-Jar bad or even close but it grates a bit.  Also, the
costumes look…strange.  Not just out of place but fake.  Which brings me to the
aesthetic of Asgard.  It seemed overly produced to the point of looking fake.
Now, to be fair, I think the director was trying to make it look set apart, like
it really is a higher, heavenly realm as opposed to just a really classy
medieval castle.  I just don’t care for the way he did.  That said, this is
really just a matter of taste.
Moving on, Thor was so powerful that it was hard to really care about him most
of the time.  At the beginning in the battle with the Frost Giants, he pretty
much single-handedly takes out an army without hardly breaking a sweat.  And at
the end, when the Destroyer shows up it pretty much makes mince-meat of Thor’s
buddies before getting completely trashed by Thor (after he gets his hammer
back).  The point is that Sif and the others simply are nowhere near Thor’s
league.  Kind of like staking up Bruce Lee against a really tough ten-year-old.

There was one significant misstep by the director and that was the inclusion of
a date at the beginning.  If I remember right, it was 967 AD when the war
between the Frost Giants and Asgardians was raging on Earth.  The big problem
here is that Thor and Loki were only babies at the time.  This raises obvious
problems with the chronology of the legends of the Norse gods.  I may have seen
it wrong and the date may have been B.C. but even then, I think it was a mistake
to put a time stamp on the Asgardian past.  It potentially raises a lot of
questions about their nature, most notably how they age.

Finally, there was just something missing.  This is the way I feel about all of
the Marvel Studios movies.  They are enjoyable movies but the only reason anyone
will be talking about them ten years from now is that they will still be making
sequels.  I’m not sure exactly what it is, unless it’s the fact that (as a
friend pointed out) they maybe trying to do too much.  A little action, a
littler comedy, a little romance, a little drama, etc.  Basically, trying to
catch every single demographic in one movie, and in the process sacrificing the
core of the story.  As he and I discussed, this is a problem of a lot of movies
today and likely accounts for why so many movies, especially remakes, reboots
and sequels ultimately feel flat.  The studios are just trying to hit all the
check marks while forgetting that their primary job is to tell a good story.
Something to think about.