(I try to avoid spoilers, but I do discuss the plot pretty freely.)
Running Time: 1 hour, 54 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Quick Impressions:
Very enjoyable movie experience overall. We opted out of 3D at the last minute after hearing it was a post-conversion. Some of the portal sequences might have been better in 3D. I thought Kenneth Branagh handed the pageantry well, and the framing of the throne room scenes in Asgard reminded me a bit of the way he did Hamlet. I loved the comedy. The scenes on earth, set in a tiny desert hamlet in New Mexico were by far my favorite.
The Good:
Thor succeeds primarily because of its character and dialogue driven scenes, many of them highly comedic. I personally would have enjoyed the movie just as much even if it took place entirely in New Mexico. I thought the look of the town was perfect, just as artistically rendered and pleasing to the eye as the larger-than-life realm of Asgard. I also enjoyed seeing more of SHIELD, including more screen time than usual for the oddly engaging Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson and the surprise appearance by Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye who delivered one of the more memorable lines in the movie.
The Performances:
In general, I thought the characters on earth were more well-developed and more interesting than the characters in Asgard (with the exception of Loki). Of the Asgardians outside the royal family, the most interesting by far was Idris Elba as Heimdall. It is not necessarily easy to be enormous, powerful, semi-stoic and still get a laugh or a cheer.
The other memorable Asgardian—Sif, the female warrior played capably enough by Jaimie Alexander, though the character was interesting more because of who she was than anything she said or did.
Sir Anthony Hopkins, excellent in any role, delivers the expected caliber of performance as Odin, though he has comparatively little to do. Rene Russo is underutilized as Frigga (a character who has almost no lines and one shining moment that lasts approximately ten seconds).
Colm Feore, voices of King Laufey well enough, though the character is scary primarily because of the powerful resonance of his deep bass.
Chris Hemsworth made a fantastic Thor, a character believable because of his lack of complexity. Thor has always relied on his strength and his name. He takes his god-like good looks and abilities for granted. He’s not vain; he simply knows what he’s capable of and proceeds accordingly. Hemsworth looks like he’s not trying too hard, which is exactly the way the character should appear. The actor does a good job of being larger than life without noticing.
Natalie Portman was equally believable as Jane Foster, particularly because when she delivered lines about scientific phenomenon, you could actually see the wheels turning in her head. Too often in summer blockbusters, a vacuous blond pretends to be an expert on some highly academic subject, but you can tell she is just mouthing words with no clue what her dialogue means. Portman delivers an understated, natural performance that makes her character real and likeable. You believe that she is a research scientist, crushed and angered by the loss of her research. Her romance with Thor happens awfully quickly and for no particular reason other than his superhuman strength, good looks, and abs. That doesn’t make it particularly implausible, however. After spending years doing atmospheric research in a trailer in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico accompanied chiefly by an old man and an apathetic intern, what vital young woman would not fall madly in love with the god-like hero whose appearance validates her research and whose persistence results in the return of her stolen notes and equipment?
Kat Dennings delivered her numerous one-liners with commendable dead-pan timing and provided further incentive for Jane to fall in love with Thor by lending outside confirmation of his attractiveness and desirability.
Stellan Skarsgard as Foster’s fatherly colleague Eric Selvig turned in the most engaging performance in the film, transitioning effortlessly from comedy to drama, thoroughly convincing in his concern for Foster’s well-being and in his conflicted desire to believe in Thor’s amazing origins though his scientific background compels him to debunk them as myth. In his eyes, you can see his sense of childhood wonder at war with his determination to prove Thor’s version of the truth ridiculous, his desire to protect Foster at odds with his relief at being able to provide her both another protector and the validation of her work she so urgently seeks.
Another standout among the cast was Tom Hiddleston as Loki. That both Hiddleston and Skarsgard will appear in The Avengers is indeed good news since both actors brought so much to their roles. In early scenes, Hiddleston delivered more intensity with his silences than his lines. As events revealed more and more of his character’s true nature, the actor began letting increasing amounts of emotion and instability creep into his lines until he finally had a huge, dramatic—and thoroughly believable—meltdown at the end of the film. Hiddleston makes Loki a rather sympathetic villain. One almost hopes that in the future he will have the same type of epiphany Thor had after his time on earth. Perhaps one day, Loki will return to Asgard older, wiser, and penitent. In the meantime, he provides genuine menace, a sinister evil no less frightening because it comes from a pitiable psychic wound.
Best Scene:
Overall, I most enjoyed the scene in which Thor bolted down his breakfast in the diner. More than any other, this scene showed the vast cultural gap separating Thor from the earthlings. Neither excessive violence nor needless explicative dialogue was needed. Simply by the way he ate breakfast, Thor clearly demonstrated his super-human qualities and unfamiliarity with human customs, and to great comic effect.
Best Action Sequence:
In contrast to the fight scenes in Jotunheim, the land of the frost giants, the scene in which Thor breaches the SHIELD defenses actually shows the action occurring from a normal distance. Most of the other people Thor fights are neither giants nor of particular importance, so there’s no need for constant close-ups. In my opinion, this was the most exciting action sequence of the movie. For one thing, it involved genuine suspense. We anticipate that Thor will get the chance to lift his hammer and realize that he can’t. But we don’t know exactly what will happen after that. How will SHIELD respond? In the beginning of the movie, we know that his aggressive actions against the frost giants will lead to his banishment. (Even those of us unfamiliar with the comics have already seen him fall to earth in the opening scene.) In the end, we know that he’s going to stop Loki somehow because the movie is already essentially over. The scene in which he fights the giant robot monster provides lots of stimulating explosions but no real suspense and little actual fighting. We know that somehow, he’s going to get the hammer back here before all is lost. I will say that the actual use of the hammer looks spectacularly cool, so this is definitely the runner-up action sequence.
The Negatives:
The sequences in Asgard seemed a little claustrophobic to me, always up in everyone’s face. Asgard was certainly beautiful, especially the Bifrost, but as soon as anyone was talking, the camera was immediately up in their face. In the action sequences, it would jump from the widest angle possible to an extreme close-up. Some of the grandiose scope of the scene would get lost because of these extreme close-ups. I’ve seen large scale action staged better. In the Spiderman movies, for example, Peter swings through the city and even in a wide shot, you see lots of events occurring. In the fantasy-realm fight portions of the film, Thor jumped from extreme wide shot to extreme close-up. (The portion of the fight involving the monster and Thor’s first use of the hammer is an exception. Any time Thor wields the hammer, the results are appropriately awesome.) These abrupt cuts to close-ups may result from a desire to save money and, admittedly, this is better solution than a wide angle view of inferior CGI.
Best Surprise (possible spoilers):
The movie started slow, and since Loki’s treachery was apparent immediately, I was genuinely surprised by the true intent of his plan. The movie clearly intended you to expect Thor to burst into his father’s bed chamber. When Loki charged in instead, I felt I should have expected it, but I did not and was quite pleased to see a more emotionally complex villain than the film’s clunky, heavy-handed beginning had led me to expect.
Overall:
Thor will frighten the youngest children because of the volume of the explosions and booming voices of the frost giants but should provide anyone over the age of five sufficient delight to justify the price of a ticket.