Thor Movie Review

Considering I had some free time yesterday morning, I went to the local cineplex to watch Thor.Which I will have to say was an awesome movie. The movie presents the tale of Thor, the son of Odin, who after sparking war with ice giants is exiled from his homeland of Asgard to earth. Odin does this to teach his son about humility. On earth, Thor is found by Jane Foster and her research team. The rest of the movie then goes on through the plot points of Thor's time on earth and Thor's brother Loki's plan to gain their father's favor. The actors in the movie do their jobs well and bring these comic book characters to life in a way that adapts the characters to the Marvel film universe. Hemsworth was a good Thor and Hiddlestorm a good Loki. Though, I will say that even though Heimdall is supposed to be the "whitest of the gods", Idris Elba was amazing as the character. His presence and tone really fit well for the guardian of Asgard.

Visually speaking, Asgard is presented in all it's stunning glory, especially the Bifrost observatory and the palace of Odin. Basically most of the better scenes of this film occur in Asgard. The frost giants and their world was also decently present. Another great set was the S.H.I.E.L.D. set up at the Mjolnir crater site and further establishes S.H.I.E.L.D.'s involvement in the Marvel Film Universe storyline. Although, I will say that The Destroyer armor was kind of meh to me. Which reminds me, the action seems were good enough for what they were, but don't go into this expecting to see lightning and thunder all over the place and Thor smashing things left and right with his hammer. Ok the smashing does happen but to be fair there are really only 4 action scenes. Though, I will say the scene where Thor regains his power on Earth was awesome for what it was due to the "mighty tornado" appearance.

Which is fine, since the film decides to focus more on the dynamic between Thor, Odin, and Loki and their family drama. A drama that can almost be considered almost Shakespearean. There's a lot of tense emotional moments between the three. Which is something the earth scenes lacked. Since it did not really seem like Thor was banished to Earth for more than a couple of days. Thus creating very little room for character and plot development for Thor's time on earth. Which kind of makes you wonder how Thor learned humility so quick and how he sparked a romance with Jane Foster in only a few days of knowing each other. Though I guess considering there's only so much you can fit in a movie this was the best they could do in time allotted. Also they were gracious enough to spare us of many scenes to illustrate Thor's "fish out of water" situation. They acknowledge he's not familiar with Earth's customs and technology, but they try to milk it for what it's worth. Although I think they kind of overdid the Jane Foster hitting Thor with a car joke a bit much.

This brings me to my next point, there is humor in this film, but compared to Iron Man, Thor is a much more serious film. Though there are still moments courtesy of Jane Foster's friend and the warriors three. Granted I don't think any of them were really laugh out loud funny. Ok maybe Stan Lee's cameo and Thor getting tasered out of no were funny to me. Though again, this movie wasn't really intended to be a funny movie as I don't think Thor was intended to be humorous outside of his old world Norse God mannerisms in a modern world. I mean Thor isn't mr. one liner like Spider-Man is. The film however, does manage to be both serious and humorous (due to circumstance) pretty well.

Now considering this is a movie based on a Marvel character you might ask how does this film represent that universe? I myself am not an expert of Thor, but I feel from what I know I know about him and Asgard it was fairly represent well. I mean sure Bifrost wasn't literally a "rainbow bridge" despite Thor mentioning something about a "rainbow bridge" and was actually a wormhole. They did manage to add some kind of subtle color spectrum effect to at least maintain some of that idea. Also the path to Bifrost was a crystal path with some more color spectrum effect. The character's themselves seem to be good representations of their comic book counter parts both in looks and characterization. Granted Asgard, it's technology, and clothing seemed a bit "futuristic" for a society of supposed Norse Gods. Though I still think the look and feel remained faithful enough to the characters.

As far as the rest of the Marvel Universe is concerned, the film does have many references to other things in the Marvel Universe. As previously mentioned S.H.I.E.L.D. makes an appearance and is central to the earth storyline of the movie. With S.H.I.E.L.D.'s involvement in the film there's also an appearance of a "special" S.H.I.E.L.D. "sniper" who favors a bow over guns and goes by the name Barton. Yes, Hawkeye from the Avengers does show up in this film. Also references to a scientist that worked with gamma radiation and a scientist that has encountered S.H.I.E.L.D. many times are mentioned. Both probably nods to Bruce Banner and Hank Pym. Also, despite Thor never getting bonded to Dr. Donald Blake as part of his banishment, the name does appear on a name tag and as Thor's "earth alias" they give to S.H.I.E.L.D. Also when The Destroyer shows up many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents argue about if it belongs to Stark or not. There is also the post credit scene that greatly sets up the upcoming Captain America and Avenger's movie. So please stay till the end of the credits. I really like the direction these crossover films seem to be going and have high hopes for The Avengers.

Overall, Thor may not be the best movie I have seen. However I feel it fits very well in setting up the universe for the forthcoming Avengers movie. It does it's job in presenting the character of Thor to those who are unfamiliar with the Asgardian god of thunder. Even then, the film does a pretty good job in presenting Thor's back story and origin. It also does a good job in presenting the world of Asgard and how it fits in with the rest of the Marvel Film Universe despite the "magical" nature of their world. If you like Marvel or comics in general, this is definitely a movie to see.



Overall Rating

4 Out Of 5

Pictures taken from Marvel.