MOVIE OF THE WEEK #1 THOR
Credit: Marvel Studios/Paramount Pictures / © 2011 Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios. All Rights Reserved.
KEY CAST MEMBERS: Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman, Tom Middleton, Kat Dennings, Rene Russo, Clark Gregg, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Colm Feore, Jaimie Alexander, Josh Dallas, Tadanobu Asano and Ray Stevenson
WRITER:Ashley Miller (as Ashley Edward Miller), Zack Stentz and Don Payne (screenplay); J. Michael Straczynski and Mark Protosevich (story; Stan Lee, Larry Lieber (comic book) & Jack Kirby (comic book) and Stan Lee (characters by)
DIRECTOR: Kenneth Branagh
WEB SITE: http://thor.marvel.com/
THE PLOT: The latest long-standing character in the Marvel Comics universe to receive his own origin story movie in lieu of the highly anticipated Avengers movie in 2012, Thor stars the relatively unknown Chris Hemsworth in the title role. The son of Odin (Anthony Hopkins), the all-powerful king of Asgard - one of 9 planets (or "realms") in the universe, Thor is a headstrong young lad who longs for a battle along with his band of soldiers, composed of Hogun (Asian cinema star Tadanobu Asan), Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Fandral (Josh Dallas), Sif (Jaimie Alexander). Also along with the fearless foursome is Loki (Tom Middleton), Thor's brother who, unlike him, is much more of a thinker prone to mischief moreso than battle.
Anyway, Thor's desire to prove himself a great warrior like his father comes to a head when he agitates King Laufey (Colm Feore), ruler of the Frost Giants on the frozen world that is Jotunheim. A frosty (pun) peace has existed between the two worlds for many years now - a peace which is threatened when three of the giants get past Heimdall (Idris Elba), the gatekeeper of the BioFrost (a.k.a. the main pathway in and out of Asgard). Thor takes the offense none to kindly, resulting in a trip to Jotunheim.
That draws the ire of his father Odin who, likely against the wishes of his wife (Rene Russo), casts Thor out to Earth as punishment, stripping him of his power and his signature weapon - Mjölnir, a hammer crafted out of a star with power unlike anything you've ever seen on the shelves of Lowe's and/or Home Depot.
Now on Earth trying to figure out his situation, Thor encounters Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), a scientist working out in Arizona with her youthful (for better and worse) intern (Kat Dennings) and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård), a fellow scientist familiar with tales of the Norse gods from his childhood. Jane and company aren't the only ones who take notice of Thor's rather "unique" arrival, as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Colson (Clark Gregg) and his team head to town to investigate what's going on.
So how does all this come to a head that results in two major battles across the universe? You'll have to see the movie to find out!
THE TAKE: This review is going to upset a lot of you. A lot of you are going to think I'm "hating" (which I do often, but not in this case), just being too hard on the movie or quite possibly, just an idiot. Well, I have news for you folks, you're wrong and I'm not. For out of all the Marvel movies of recent release (dating back to the first Spider-Man), Thor is one of the least interesting of the bunch. It's not Ang Lee's Hulk (not to be confused with the much-better and under-appreciated The Incredible Hulk starring Edward Norton) bad, but it's just really, really ... bland.
While it might be hard to appreciate someone saying that a comic book superhero has a complex back story - after all, don't almost ALL superheroes have some sort of complexity to them? - Thor really does as compared to a lot of his costumed compatriots. Thor, the film, however, goes into great detail to explain his origins, motivations and arrival on earth so that the mainstream will have no trouble understanding how he fits into the Avengers' cannon.
The problem with that is Thor often feels like a heady stage play that just happens to have a brute of a man swinging a giant hammer in it at times. Director Kenneth Branagh's classical-trained Shakespearian influence is seen throughout the film as Thor almost plays out more like an episode of The Tudors or Starz' steamy drama Spartacus more than a summer action movie. It's almost too smart for its own good, like getting an Ivy league drama team to perform a production of The A-Team. It's great to present a deep superhero origin story ... But if it fails to actually kick ass, a kick-ass movie does it not make ...
Hemsworth, for his part, owns the role of Thor well as does Middleton as Loki, his ne'er-do-well who is not going to do a certain group of people any favors due to some of his issues. (I would say more, but that would ruin the plot and if you really wanna know, just go read some of the old comic books!) Portman, however, seems completely out of her element as Thor's female interest in the film and Dennings constant young-person-who-constantly-makes-snappy, witty-remarks routine is funny but still a bit out of place.
Throw in a significant lack of [1] action and [2] action that is compelling, interesting and exciting as opposed to anti-climatic when it happens and you [3] end up with a pretty bland flick that likely won't make it onto the shelves of many Marvel fans when it hits DVD & Blu-Ray later this year except for the die-hard enthusiasts. Oh well, at least there's still Captain America: The First Avenger to look forward to ...
PARTING SHOT: For a film that many are looking forward to starting off their summer movie watching with a mighty wallop, Thor barely makes a dent in the realm of great superhero movies.
RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
Comments
Post a Comment