Hammer time!
Director Kenneth Branagh brings his Shakespearean pedigree to Thor, easily his best effort since his epic Hamlet, and proving that the superhero genre is quite suited to his grandiose sensibilities.
Perfectly cast in the title role, Chris Hemsworth (Kirk’s heroic father from the J.J. Abrams Star Trek) brings mountains of muscle, charm and good humor to the hammer-wielding son of Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Right from the beginning, when Odin banishes Thor from his godly realm to the land of Earth, and younger son Loki (Tom Hiddleston) begins his villainous rise, echoes of Shakespeare’s King Lear are prominent. Thor and Loki wind up being the Marvel equivalent of Lear’s Edgar and Edmund.
This is an origin story, handled very much in the same way as the first Superman and Spider-Man, replete with a triumphant musical score by Patrick Doyle that would make John Williams blush. It’s a complete experience, with eye-popping action—Branagh uses CGI and 3-D technology to maximum effect—a sweet love story—a little actress named Natalie Portman stops by to provide romantic interest—and many solid laughs.
Branagh’s films have sometimes suffered from pretentiousness, getting so overblown that they become goofy. While he hit a perfect balance with his Hamlet, still his best film, misfires like Frankenstein and Much Ado About Nothing—Keanu Reeves doing Shakespeare … oh my—laced his career.
With Thor, Branagh’s able to be as overblown and goofy as he wants, and the character accommodates him.
We first see Thor in his silly Viking helmet, sporting a cape and bellowing his lines with the force of a young Laurence Olivier. After he disobeys, and Odin banishes him, Thor finds himself smashing coffee mugs in an old town American diner, with Kat Dennings, contributing excellent deadpan comedy, clicking a picture of him for Facebook.
As the action switches back and forth throughout the film, one of the movie’s great joys is the contrast between the Earthly world and Thor’s mythological hometown. As part of his banishment, Thor is stripped of his powers, and there’s nothing more intriguing in a superhero movie than the main hero losing his juice.
Of course, a good superhero movie needs a delectable supervillain, and relative unknown Hiddleston brings much treachery to the role of Loki. Loki isn’t pure evil; he’s misunderstood and confused, and his descent into villainy amounts to the film’s great tragedy. Credit Branagh, Hiddleston and the film’s writers for creating a monster with humane elements. It makes Loki all the more interesting and far from a villainous stereotype.
While the Thor vs. Loki battle is the main thrust of the story, the film does stop to breathe every now and then, slowing its pace for the budding love story between Thor and beautiful scientist Jane Foster (Portman) or simple banter between Thor and mere mortals. I urge patience in watching the slower moments because they’re quite good, and heart-racing action always follows.
If you should take in the experience with 3D glasses, Thor is an example of post-converted 3-D done right, as opposed to slop like Clash of the Titans and Alice in Wonderland. Branagh and crew apparently learned they would be doing a 3-D conversion fairly early on, and I suspect Branagh shot his movie keeping in mind that it would be 3-D, rather than haphazardly changing the film in post-production just a couple of months before the release date (the mistake Titans made).
The summer movie season is young, but Thor kicks it into high gear and is a nice primer for the upcoming The Avengers. Hemsworth ranks with the likes of Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh, Christian Bale, Robert Downey Jr. and Tobey Maguire for bringing true depth to the potentially superficial role of superhero.
As for Branagh, he brings a majestic grace to the genre and instantly joins the Superhero Film Director Hall of Fame alongside Richard Donner, Sam Raimi and Christopher Nolan.
Admittedly, I initially thought the character of Thor would make for a boring film. I was wrong.