Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Thor (2011) review

            Thor is considered to be, by most fans to be hands down, the weakest of the films in Marvel Phase 1. But you know what, even the worst of the best is still pretty good, and it’s safe to call Thor, a good film, considering the Marvel Franchise string of box office success stories. This film has a couple of achievements going for it. They took the character and made him and the world he lives in accessible to a wide audience. The film introduced Chris Hemsworth, and Tom Hiddleston into the lives of average movie goers the world over.
            Understand why adapting Thor was a challenge, in the comics, he a character that often speaks in Shakespearian terms. His battles are mythological, and people often thought for years that if you were ever to make a Thor film, you would have to do so subtly. Thor is not about subtlety what so ever, the character and everything about him is larger than life in the best of ways. To do Thor subtle would have been to take away a big defining characteristic of the character. The filmmakers did not shy away from that, instead they opted to build a fantasy world.
            The explanations for why everything is as it is in this world is really very simple and further expanded the MCU at the time. Thor is not a magical being, he is part of an ancient highly advanced and intelligent alien race of people known as Asgardians. Magic and spells? Yes it’s supposed to seem that way to the human characters in the movie. Everything, however, from Thor’s hammer, to Loki’s sorcery is meant to come across as technology so far advanced from our own, we as human beings cannot comprehend how any of it works.
            The story is very sophisticated in how it’s told, when I first saw the film there were plenty of twists and turns I didn’t see coming. (And I looked up spoilers) And it’s the story telling that made Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, such a great villain. Its one thing when a villain comes off as intelligent, and sophisticated, easy to hate, and is only there to apply challenge after challenge for our hero. This is a villain who is an adoptive brother to our main hero and title character though. This adds a depth and complexity very few people expected from a mythical beat-em-up.
            Here we have a movie that surprised a lot of people, from its comic book fans who knew who Thor was. And it even surprised new viewers who were expecting little or next to nothing about what they were in for. That being said it’s a shame that the majority of this fantasy adventure film does in fact take place in the human world. Although we get a good look at Thor’s life and the world the character grew up in, it’s difficult to savor when what the movie shows us is there bare minimum of Asgard and the other realms.

            Thor is still as good as it was upon release. If you haven’t seen it recently, or not at all, track it down and give it a watch.

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