Review: Thor

        The Avengers was a movie unlike any other. It connected five films in one epic tale of derring do, and it did so surprisingly well. Aside from perhaps Nolan's The Dark Knight, The Avengers is the best superhero movie ever made. It's unfortunate that the films that preceded it were not quite as amazing. The first Iron Man was a triumph, the second one would've been terrible if not for Robert Downey Jr., Captain America was entertaining, but lacking in substance, I haven't seen Incredible Hulk with either Eric Bana or Edward Norton, but from what I've heard, that's for the best. Which brings me to Thor. I like Thor in the Marvel Comics, the old-timey way he talks sets him apart from other characters in the Marvel universe, lending him a certain charm. His hammer Mjolnir is also really cool as it gives him the ability to fly as well as bust skulls. Chris Hemsworth does a decent job bringing across the things I like about Thor from the comics, and he certainly looks the part, but a weak script brought this movie down.



The film begins by establishing the conflict between the Asgardians and the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. Odin (Anthony Hopkins), King of Asgard, stole from their power source, the tesseract from The Avengers, or something like it (its appearance in Captain America makes the timeline confusing) during a long ago war between the two realms. Now, The Frost Giants want it back and they break into Asgard. Thor will have none of this and against his father's wishes goes to Jotunheim to finish off the Frost Giants once and for all. This brings the two realms to the brink of war for which Odin banishes Thor from Asgard and seperates him from Mjolnir. Thor crash lands on in New Mexico and meets a group of scientists consisting of Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard, and Kat Dennings. While Thor is away, his conniving brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) claims the throne of Asgard when their father falls ill. Thor must then find his hammer fight his way back to Asgard, and defeat his brother. There's a lot of other nonsense going on, involving some double-crossing and there's also a paper thin love story that really could have been left out and only served to weaken the story.

Tom Hiddleston is fabulous as Loki, a role he would reprise as the main villain in The Avengers. We know he's up to no good, but there's just the right amount of right intention behind his actions that he comes across as a very conflicted character which makes him very interesting to watch. I'm glad they brought him back for The Avengers rather than some other villain from one of the other heroes's rogues gallery. On the other hand, Natalie Portman was just terrible. She was totally unbelievable as a scientist. I had to role my eyes when she started talking about particle physics and Einstein-Rosen bridges. Portman is supposed to playing an astrophysicist, but she acts more like a stormchaser, running  around the desert in a van and looking at the sky, which won't get you very far in astrophysics. I don't know why the writers tried to create a love story between her and Thor. It had no bearing on the story, and was wholly unconvincing. She was never in any real danger and she couldn't do much of anything to save him when he was. The only reason the love story was there was to give Thor a way to be able to wield Mjolnir once again, which could've been achieved in any number of ways. Similarly, Thor's friends from Asgard were equally superfluous. Except for hardcore fans of Thor comics, the audience doesn't know who these characters are, and in the key fight scenes towards the end of the film the prove to be practically worthless. The action was solid, especially in some early scenes, and the special effects were pretty average for a big blockbuster nowadays, however there were a few scenes where the lighting was so dark you could barely make out what was happening. The nods to the other Avengers characters, notably Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, were also nice touches. Thor was a much better character in The Avengers under the guidance of Joss Whedon, and I look forward to his upcoming standalone sequel, Thor: The Dark World  as well as The Avengers 2.