After the hype surrounding Thor, I was expecting the film not to meet expectations. I was expecting a totally de-powered, diluted comic Rip-Off where original fans wouldn't recognise the story, the characters and that the newer fans who have just been introduced to the Marvel Universe wouldn't get it.
The film...confounded every fear I had. It was MARVEL-ous. Chris Hemsworth portrays Thor so perfectly it's astonishing. After his Star Trek exploits, I thought perhaps that it was a one off performance, to be able to make you feel so emotionally invested in a character who had little screen time seemed like lightning in a bottle. He couldn't make you feel for a character for over 2 hours right? WRONG.
He is perfect. His acting skills are immense. Such a range. Cocky, arrogant, vengeful, powerful, carefree, manly to boyish, vulnerable, loving and caring, protective and humble. in one film. Class.
Thor's scenes on earth again show a range of emotion. Either exceedingly funny while still being of a service to the film and not being a slight on the characters or comic. Something I myself was happy about. I truly believed they would make fun of the history of Thor and of the story. They didn't. It really was good fish out of water scenes.
From that comedy came really emtional scenes with Jane Foster, but not like gushy or over the top. Nicely done, touching moments. subtle. Eg. Jane looks at Thor when he's been gazing at her and he turns away sharply as if he wasn't looking. Sort of classroom love when you were at school, very real.
His "de-powered" fight scenes on the SHIELD built structure, while put down by many on this site, were great and extremely real. Raw I think describes it best. Hawkeye makes an extended cameo and already shows that Jeremy Renner is going to do the character a great service.
I have heard people complaining about the amount of time it takes Thor to learn to be a better person. It does not in anyway feel rushed. I can assure you. It is of course a 2hour movie but it really does feel like he has learned the lessons Odin demands he learn.
Tom Hiddleston embodies Loki respectively. You can almost see the machinations of evil, the whirring of his brain as he looks to what moves he will play 3 steps ahead of where he is at. Always planning schemeing and yet it's not obvious, he isn't running about with the big arrow pointing at him saying "bad guy". It is a really pure performance. One of the most accurate portrayals of a character ever seen on film.
Odin - Anthony Hopkins. Perfect. Nuff said.
Warriors 3 and Sif do not get alot of screen time so their respective personalities are not fleshed out. However, you do understand immediately that Thor loves and trusts them and that they love and trust Thor. They also look pretty much like their comic counterparts.
Natalie Portman - another class act. Her gradual enchantment with Thor is very believeable and true to her chracter. She portrays an Astro-physicist who doesn't get out much and her ex boyfriend Dr. Donald Blake seemed to have more interest in his patients than her. Yes the fans will get that reference to Dr Blake.
The score - Me, being not a pretentious person, cannot critique the score other than to say, it helped me feel the right emotions at the right time. Indeed at some parts of the script I could've cried. HOWEVER, being the manly man that I am I held back...also more accurately... so my girlfriend wouldn't think I was more of a girl than her. But yes, my emotions towards the situations and characters were definitely molded by the score. So a thumbs up on that front.
SHIELD is an unobtrusive plot device. Marvel has learnt the lessons and made sure that SHIELD is an agency with real menaing this time and not airy-fairy men in black.
Stan Lee's cameo is great, quite funny. Darcy - played by Kat Dennings is actually quite funny but not over-used and isn't annoying like I for one thought she would be. However she is literally comic relief.
I want to express again that the component pieces of the film - actors, direction, score, performances, make this a truly great film. There were alot of people at the showing I was at who had not liked sci-fi-esque movies before, or fanstasy but absolutely enjoyed the film and it's obvious why. I read the tag "Shakespeare in Space" was applied to this film and this should be enough to mark it as a true great anyway :)
In conclusion, I am struggling to find negatives about this film. In other reviews the fact that Thor has powers and magic etc seem to be the only negatives, but it's a comic book movie for godsake. It is meant to be a little bit of escape-ism, an adventure. Yes it is contained within a "real" world setting but how can you think a man in a metal suit (Ironman) can fall from orbital heights and not die but accept he doesnt yet find Thor as being somewhat too much??
No, this is a truly outstanding film. Ironman while a huge hit, doesn't have the depth of story and wealth of acting talent as this film.
The film in my opinion is a masterpiece in CBM terms. Definitely the best film Marvel has made. The Dark Knight being "probably" the pinncale of CBM achievement definitely has this film to contend with for the title of best CBM. "And that is a scientific fact :P "
!!!!SPOILERS!!!!
Thor flies. Like a ballastic missile heading for it's target.
Thor does the classic Hammer Spin more than once and it is very impressive.
Odin rides his eight legged horse. Sorry to use this word, but really, it was Awesome. Frost Giants very impressive. The pictures of Loki with the Cosmic Cube were actually pictures of Loki with the Casket of Ancient Winters.
However, The Cosmic Cube makes an appearance at the end of credits sequence. This sequence has definite consequences for Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers.
Thank you to those who read this. I hope it influenced your decision wether to go or not to go and see Thor.