“Thor” (2011)
My standard apology for a lapse in blogging. I’ve had a bunch of articles due that I took way too long to write, and life seems to be crashing around me in waves, which are tremendous fun if I’m a little ahead of them, but instead I keep getting sand in my suit and swallowing the ocean.
My husband and I deemed Kenneth Branagh’s new Thor date-worthy, after it got some good reviews out of the gate. And I enjoyed it a great deal, but at least some of that may be due to how ridiculously handsome I found the guy who plays Thor, and I’m normally more drawn to Mediterranean looking guys, not Nordic ones. Some of this, too, has to be due to director Kenneth Branagh, who knows from directing himself as a young king in Henry V, how to made a young blond guy look good, as well as tell a compelling story about how he has to fight for his place on the throne, overcome the rashness of youth, and court an awkward, brunette foreign beauty. But it was the “villain,” the jealous sibling and trickster Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston who really made the film, I thought.
This is not A-list comic-based fare, like Spider Man 2 or The Dark Knight, but it’s up there with Iron Man as a solid, well-done, interestingly cast, entertaining flick.
May 23rd, 2011 at 1:50 pm
we just saw “Thor” for our date night last night as well. I agree it wasn’t A-list, though we both enjoyed it. I found the bit with Asgardians on Earth to feel somewhat cheesy, but I’m not sure if perhaps that was intended (Branagh strikes me as too savvy for that).
My wife’s didn’t feel he (Thor) really earned his character transformation — one minute, he’s dashing, charming, and utterly full of himself… and the next he’s suddenly a changed man. I dunno — I find myself on the fence.
May 23rd, 2011 at 4:02 pm
WL, I agree with you both: Asgardians on Earth was cheesy (flashbacks to Superman 2) and his turnaround did feel more told not shown. But perhaps Natalie Portman is much more of an incentive than her boring character might lead us to believe!
May 25th, 2011 at 9:42 am
Totally agree with you about Chris Hemsworth being totally dashing! I did not expect that at all! I agreed to see this with my husband because we generally enjoy comic book movies and I did think this was decent. Not the best, but certainly somewhere in the same league as Iron Man (which is actually what I compared it to to a friend). I thought the parts on Earth were less interesting than the mythology portions of the film, and I do think the romance with Portman was kind of contrived and not very well developed, but it’s a comic book movie so I guess that shouldn’t be surprising. All in all, a fun movie that I’m glad I saw and one I would happily watch again at some point!