Sunday, May 8, 2011

Thor, movie review by David vun Kannon

Thor is an entertaining film. There, that is all that really needs to be said.
 
OK, in a little more detail, Thor is an origin film that re-imagines the Marvel superhero The Mighty Thor. Thor's enmity and continuing battle with Loki, his brother, is established, as is his love for Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). Anthony Hopkins is more believable as Odin than he was as an aging werewolf. Stan Lee got his cameo, but only about half the audience knew who he was. Stellan Skarsgard pitches in, and Tom Hiddleston as Loki looks way to much like Commander Data. Loki is the only interesting character, everyone else is too flat. Even Thor stops being arrogant too quickly. What hapened to that Marvel specialty, the flawed hero?
 
Asgard is nicely imagined, though dominated by a golden pyramid closely resembling that huge garish hotel in Pyongyang. Why does all pseudo-triumphalist architecture come out looking the same, and boring?
 
I saw it in Imax 3D, which was probably overkill for this movie. Certainly the noise level was too high.
 
Some funny 'fish out of water' moments for Thor when first arrives on Earth had the audience laughing out loud.
 
Trailers:
Transformers: Dark of the Moon looks loud and confusingly shot, continuing the poor tradition of the first two films.
 
Cowboys & Aliens (extended trailer) looks like a lot of fun. Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and some nasty aliens kidnapping people.
 
Pirates of the Carribean - Can the series continue without Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom? Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Penelope Cruz will help us find out. Looking for the Fountain of Youth, mermaids, etc... only tracking 50% likelihood of going on my personal buzzmeter (still better than Transformers...)
 
Super 8 - a new film by JJ Abrams. Trailer has some very Spielbergian elements, looks interesting.

1 comment:

OgreMkV said...

I also saw a preview for the new Three Muskateers movie, which does have Orlando Bloom in it. Though I think it will be a little too 'over-the-top' (kind of like A-Team over-the-top) with massively improbable stunts and what appears to be some magical elements.

Also saw the preview for Captain America and Green Lantern (which my wife insists on seeing... something about a 'stud', I have no idea what she's talking about), but I'll dutifully go see them.

As far as Thor, you know, I disagree with his portrayal. I thought it was pretty good. I see him as a character who wants to be good, but just doesn't understand how to do it. It doesn't take too much (Natalie Portman smiling for example) to get him to figure it out.

I do agree that Loki was, by far, the most complex character.

I enjoyed it.