Brother Kenneth, ye doth make a fun load of old nonsense.
First of all, a gripe - I was more or less forced to watch Thor in 3D as the cinema I went to decided that one 2D showing in the afternoon on a Wednesday would suffice and therefore anyone who actually works in the day would have to put up with the numerous showings of the eye-scraping 3D version in the evening. I have tried not to rant about how much I dislike 3D but it is hard not to. It makes me more angry to see that even established art-house directors such as Werner Herzog are embracing this horrifically flawed medium. Someone needs to end it now. The 3D in Thor was truly awful and completely pointless. Large parts of the film went by without even being in 3D, as if the people responsible for the conversion just gave up halfway through. It was disappointing as Thor is clearly (or unclearly in this case) a visually stunning film. The 3D did not enhance the visuals; it cheapened them. I will gladly never pay to see a 3D film ever again and I'm hoping other people will join me.
Anyway, my thorts on Thor (sorry, I will try to avoid writing any more bad Thor puns that seem to have taken over the web of late). By rights, it really shouldn't be any good. A super-hero summer blockbuster, arriving at a time when many may have had enough of costumed vigilantes invading our multiplexes year after year, with a quite bizarre back story and mythology about immortal Gods in another universe banishing one of their loose cannons to Earth to try and redeem himself for starting a war with, er, Frost Giants. In Chris Nolan's Hollywood (which it is now), this is surely simply too stupid a story to spend $150 million dollars on?
The problem with Nolan's dark, superior Batman films and the game-changing Inception is that of the copycat complex. Apparently everything that Hollywood produces now needs to dark and serious. Enter another serious Brit: Kenneth Brannagh. Did Marvel hire this great proponent of the Bard as director in the hope that he would bring some gravitas to proceedings and really focus on Thor's tragic elements? Probably. Thankfully, Brannagh seems to have realised that Thor is one of Marvel's most obscure and ridiculous characters, resulting in him having a bit of fun with the whole thing. It makes for superior blockbuster entertainment when it could have fallen into self-satisfied boring nonsense (well it's definitely not self-satisfied or boring).
Thor himself is played pitch-perfectly by relatively unknown Australian actor, Chris Hemsworth. Hemsworth also recognises that Thor is a character that needs to be laughed at (in the nicest possible way). He manages the humorous side of the character as well as he does the macho and sensitive sides. He also looks good holding a massive hammer.
Just as he is just about to become king of Asgard, Thor decides to take on the Frost Giants from the planet Jotunheim (keep with me) after a couple of them turn up to steal back the source of all their power, which Thor's father, Odin (a relatively restrained Anthony Hopkins), took from them. Odin isn't best pleased with this and decides to banish Thor to Earth to learn a few lessons. You'd be forgiven for thinking, in the lengthy opening sequence on Asgard, that it's a bit Lord of the Rings-lite. But once it gets going it doesn't really matter. And once Thor falls to Earth with a massive thud the film swiftly moves from something big and loud to something genuinely funny and moving. The fact that the film keeps jumping between two different universes gives you an idea of how all-over-the-place this film is, not just in location but in tone - one minute we're watching Odin and Thor's brother Loki (the superb Tom Hiddleston) having a major father-son crisis, the next Thor is delivering the film's funniest line in a pet shop in New Mexico. Amazingly, Brannagh manages to keep everything (just about) under control. Saying that, this is definitely a Marvel film rather than a Brannagh one. He doesn't really put his own stamp on it but I am hoping this is the beginning of a revival of his film career and not just a one-off.
Thor has one of the great super-hero casts. Asides from Hopkins and Hiddleston, in amongst the chaos are Rene Russo and Jeremy Renner (both wasted), Natalie Portman (the love interest who doesn't have much to do), Idris Elba and Stellan Skarsgard (both excellent). Yet, importantly, Hemsworth is still the star, closely followed by Hiddleston (despite looking unnervingly like Jared Leto). Loki is the most interesting and conflicted character and Hiddleston is perfect. They all seem to be relishing in the preposterousness of it all, which is partly why the whole thing works.
Thor is by no means a classic and isn't up there with the likes of Nolan's Batman films or, for example, Spider-Man 2. But it has a lot going for it - superb action sequences, a wry sense of humour and great performances. It sets the bar fairly high for the many super-hero films to come this summer. A shame really that Brannagh isn't directing all of them. And regretful that most will be in 3D.
3½ / 5
