This one comes from the perspective of someone who´s a big comic book fan, but not particularly a Thor fan. I know the basic canon, read some of the Lee/Kirby stuff, some Walt Simonson, a bit of Warren Ellis, but can´t make any claims to be some kind of Thor expert. Which, in a way, helped me to enjoy the movie without much to nitpick about.
The best thing about Thor for me is it pretty much flew by. There was barely a moment where I was even borderline bored. The Asgard and Jotunhein visuals were awesome, and director Kenneth Branagh also made good use of the New Mexico earth setting.
The interesting thing about Thor, differently from other comic book movies, is this is not the one where you see a guy get the superpowers or armor or gadgets or whatever, and figure them out till he becomes the superhero. Thor starts the movie in full power, but then you get what usually happens in the superhero sequel: he loses his powers and has to deal with extraordinary circumstances as a regular human.
The story is about him becoming a hero on the inside, letting go of his arrogance and impulsivity and becoming wiser and more responsible. It´s a smart move that grounds the character and gives him more humanity.
The cast all around works. Nobody would be surprised that Anthony Hopkins gives authority and gravitas to Odin, but Chris Hemsworth stands out in the title role. He combines the Shakespearean – minus the “thou” and “thee” thing - nobility of the Stan Lee version with the Viking bravado and hedonism of the actual norse god. And also gives him enough vulnerability that you believe him when he suffers through the consequences of his mistake.
Tom Hiddleston is all you´d expect from Loki, deceitfully restrained, soft-spoken, with a mix of bitter sadness and anger just waiting to explode.
Natalie Portman plays the girly scientist, yeah, but unlike a numbwit like Denise Richards or Tara Reid, she doesn´t try to pretend to be all serious and intellectual, she´s nerdy but a girly girl with a lovable goofiness. It´s a nice reversal of the Spider-Man romance dynamic, here it´s the girl who´s the nerd with a crush on the hunk. That said, though, she doesn´t really add much more to the story than if she were a nurse or a paramedic like in the Avengers cartoon. She´s there to be the romantic interest and for Thor to explain the whole nine realms magic/science mix thing to the audience without just getting an appaled blank stare from the girl.
One thing the more diehard comic book fans may not like: there´s not that much Thor in full costume and power in the movie, and most of the action is out of Asgard. You get a long, and great, sequence with him in the beginning and then in the climax, but for most of the movie he´s costume-less and Mjolnir-less, although it´s the point of the story, actually. Also, most of the epic mythological Asgard/Jotunhein stuff is in the first act, the third act is a little bit underwhelming compared to it. Some of the fighting was also more chaotic than intelligible.
The humor overall works, but the repeated gag of Jane running over Thor feels a bit forced, not to mention almost every joke with the Kat Dennings character seems to scream “we wanted to appeal to the Y generation”, so there´s a taser joke, a Facebook joke, an Ipod joke, etc.
Is Thor the new The Dark Knight? Not by a long shot. Is it the new Iron Man? Doesn´t quite reach the intelligence and rapid-fire wit of that one, but is a welcome addition to the superhero movie subgenre, entertaining and different enough for audiences not to feel saturated with yet another guy in costume fighting the good fight, and most likely to please fanboys, the ones who manage to be pleased with adaptations without making laundry lists of pointless, petty complaints anyway.
But even a non-diehard fan like myself feels forced to ask: why the hell does he barely wear the frikking helmet? It´s a helmet, it´s head protection, and it doesn´t even hide the actor´s face, gosh darnit…
GRADE: 7,5 OUT OF TEN