Okay, I never really do reviews but this ones a biggie, one like many of you have been looking forward to the most this year. Well this and Green Lantern of course. Saying that, as I said I don't do reviews much, but I did do a Manga one last night K-20: Legend of The Black Mask. Check it out when you have the time, its down the main page. Okay back to Thor...
First off, I did want to see and was planning to see Thor in 2D but there was no early showing for that so I went to a 3D showing. Why, is because I still don't think Hollywood has totally mastered the 3D effects on the big screen, its like your watching a live-action pop-up book if get what I mean and wearing the glasses is annoying. Still, it didn't ruining my viewing or enjoyment of the comic book motion picture. So I got my 3D glasses, sat down and after five minutes of crappy music from the cinema the trailers came up. Guess what, the first trailer was X-Men: First Class ha ha, but that didn't put a dampener on my experience as Captain America: First Avenger came up straight after. Whew lol and I've got to tell you the Cap trailer looks so much better on the big screen than on Youtube, another gem in the making and people even cheered for that one in the theatre.
Right, past a few more trailers and putting on the glasses the Paramount intro appeared and I knew this was going to be one of the biggest cinema rides of my life with a great big smile on my face.
The Thor intro was good and the music was spot on, we also see Thor banished to Earth (Midgard). If you didn't know, Midgard is the Earthly plane of existence. Although its technically not part of the Asgardian dimension, it is considered one of the Nine Worlds by the Asgardians because of its significant connections to Asgard. Hope you got all that! Anyway, starts off with Thor banished and then rewinds back to the very beginning of the war between the Frost Giants and The Asgardians, wont tell you what about as spoiler free remember. Lets just say it blows your mind, much like the scale of Asgard too, on a huge epic scale, that you can believe is the home of the gods.
Now to the voices, Chris Hemsworth's as Thor was to start off with hard to accept, he's accent was too posh and not gritty enough for my liking, but saying that he does seem to lose it for most of the rest of the picture and played Thor perfectly and can see no other ever playing the part but him now. Also when you see him as adult Thor all in armor with helmet on Asgard, its breathtaking, its just a damn shame he doesn't seem to wear the helmet much after that at all, as he looks totally awesome and bad ass. As for Odin, I like Anthony Hopkins a lot, but he did just sound like Anthony Hopkins and not actually the god of gods, just think he could have put a more forceful voice on for the part, but he did impress and looked incredible armored up and eye patch an all.
Tom Hiddleston who plays the god of mischief Loki, plays him perfectly (as we all knew he would). He has many depths to the character and why he turns out like he does, very complex. You even start to like him and he's not that black and white at all, very grey area character with an oginin you have to see for yourself. I do wish though we got to see more of the real Loki, but I suppose thats saved for The Avengers. Would love to hear his devilishly laugh on screen, chills.
Natalie Portman plays Jane Foster spot on and you really forget its Natalie Portman. I can also see why she got cast, Hemsworth looks a total giant up against her and makes him look very godlike with a huge chemistry between them too, much like Han Solo and Princess Leia or Superman and Lois Lane on the big screen. So this movie has got that romance factor, wink, wink, your girlfriend/wife/partner will like this a lot.
The rest of the cast are all spot on too, with the exception of Kat Denning's who plays Darcy Lewis, she just wasn't really used enough and at the back of my head all it kept saying was the perfect Hela, the child of trickster Loki and the giantess Angrboda, but thats just me. Everyone else outdid themselves and you truly believed they were their characters. Ray Stevenson who's Volstagg of the Warriors Three was superb as was Tadanobu Asano (Hogun) and Josh Dallas (Fandral), an amazing trio, just jumped out of your Thor comic book pages. Yup Ray don't need to play Frank Castle no more he totally owed as Volstagg and made me chuckle through his scenes. Jaimie Alexander (Sif), beautiful actress and a talented one too, perfectly cast for Lady Sif. Idris Elba as Heimdall was truly class as the gatekeeper and his costume on the big screen did look amazing and very powering, the way he should look guarding the rainbow bridge. Talking rainbow bridge it was more a prism bridge than a rainbow bridge and I personally didn't like it at the start, but further on and you get to see it close up, it does look incredible and you fall in love with it as of all of Asgard. Stellan Skarsgård (Erik Selvig), Colm Feore (King Laufey), Rene Russo (Frigga) and everyone else I haven't mentioned played their characters beautifully. It was also great to see our favorite S.H.I.E.L.D Agent back, Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, who owned in every scene, talented actor.
The sets and costumes like I've said are magnificent, theres nods to the Hulk, Iron Man and Donald Blake. A very cool Hawkeye scene, though not in purple gear and I even forgot Clint was in it till he appeared with crossbow in S.H.I.E.L.D get up. Fingers crossed he get a bit of the suit in Avengers. We only got see one (other than Midgard) of the realms with the Frost Giants, it gives you a taste for wanting so much more. Also I missed Enchantress in this, needs to be in Thor 2.
Stan Lees cameo was one of he's best yet, wont tell you what it is, but you will love it.
Thor basically is action, adventure, sci-fi, fantasy, romance and humor, plus a lot more all rolled into one, on a pure epicness scale!
You can believe in Kenneth Branagh, I knew he wouldn't let us down, he done the impossible, made Thor believable with layers of depth, he also made it look effortless, a pure genius. Makes you wish he was on The Avengers and thank god we didn't get Ultimate Thor, how bad would that have been?
Anyway, the adaptation had many twists and turns in it and action, Thor blew me away and I came out with a real big buzz, this kinda proves we need all our Marvel heroes back in a Marvel shared universe where they all belong, we have the Punisher back for starters, now just the rest.
Final thought, pure masterpiece, Marvel Studios finest yet and best to date. Even blowing Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk away, up there with comic book greats The Watchmen, The Dark Knight, Superman: The movie etc. Thor's great and entertaining for the kids and adults too, everyone will get absorbed into Thor's world and will absolutely love it.
Thor is The Lord of The Rings of Superheroes, its just a pity it was only 114 minutes instead of 3 hours.
An easy 9.5 out of 10 stars!
Cannot recommend it enough, true masterpiece on so many levels, Marvel, Branagh and co have completely outdone themselves!
You can truly believe a god can fly!