Thor is the latest Marvel Comics tale about super heroes brought to the big screen. This one is the actual Thor AKA God of Thunder. He has a hammer. A big hammer. Only he can lift it. It’s that heavy.
Aussie Chris Hemsworth plays the big hammerer. CH was recently seen as Jim Kirk’s dad in the latest version of Star Trek. He was in the opening scene and his Captaincy is very short. This time out he gets a lot more screen time.
To add status to this comic book tale, Sir Anthony Hopkins plays Thor’s dad Odin. He is the boss and king of Asgard. Another Oscar winner (but not for eating people) is Natalie Portman. She plays an Earthling. She is very cute. Thor likes her. Me too.
Lots of big battles are occurring on Asgard. They have begun to spill over into New Mexico. This means trouble. Thor is in competition with his brother Loki to become the new king when AH goes to where Odin types go when they expire. The bad guys are big, ugly, drooling, devil monsters who freeze their enemies. They have red eyes, hate everybody but themselves and are mad all the time. They act like Frosty the Snowman on steroids going on a rampage when his satellite dish goes out while watching his favorite sporting event, the final day of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Talk about a melt down.
The film jogs back and forth between Asgard and Earth with battles, intrigue, and a little romance. Thor gets banished to Earth for being overly hammerish. Dad is mad. Brother Loki is scheming it up.
When on Earth the film takes a turn toward wicked humor when a number of pratfalls make Thor look very human. It’s a lot like when Robert Downey, Jr. was experimenting with the Iron Man suit. These are the movies best moments. Lots of crowd laughs.
Made for an estimated budget of 150 million dollars, this film has top-notch computer generated special effects. They hired Shakespearean director Kenneth Branagh to guide the film. While the result looks great the story is predictable and the characters are not very compelling. While they are reaching for an Iron Man result they get more of a tin-man outcome. Marvel is also about to release Captain America on July 22nd. They are tying Captain America, Thor and Iron Man into a series of films called The Avengers. Samuel L. Jackson will be in all these films and was introduced in the Iron Man series. A hint of Thor was introduced at the end of one of those films also. If you see Thor and stay till the end of the credit’s the story will continue with S.L. Jackson in a short scene merging this story with those to follow. I will be there to check them out.
Rated 2.5 out of 4.0 reasons if I had a hammer, I’d hammer in the morning. NOTE for Marvel aficionados watch for Stan Lee. He is behind the wheel of the pickup truck that has an issue trying to pull Thor’s hammer out of the ground.