Thor

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston and Anthony Hopkins
Directed By: Kenneth Branagh
Story By: J. Michael Straczynski and Mark Protosevich
Screenplay By: Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz and Son Payne
Based On: The Marvel Comics character created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby
Produced By: Kevin Feige
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: Approximately 114 minutes
Website: thor.marvel.com
Budget: $150 million
Genre: Adventure, Action, Drama
Release Date: May 6, 2011

That sound you hear is not ominous thunder rolling in over the horizon, it’s Hollywood beginning its summer-long stampede on movie theatres. They are ravenous, they have product placement and tie-in merchandise, and they want your money. The battle between moviegoers and the would-be blockbusters that vie for our attention is an ancient one, repeating itself around this time every year. The summer’s first contender is Thor – that’s the God of Thunder to mere mortals like you and me – and as first opponents go, the hammer-wielding Norseman is a tough one.

Based not so much on the Nordic mythological figure, the movie Thor is actually an adaptation of the longstanding Marvel Comics character and charter member of the Avengers superhero team. The movie’s Thor is played by relative newcomer Chris Hemsworth, who had a brief but memorable scene in 2009’s Star Trek as Captain Kirk’s doomed father. There, in his few moments on screen, Hemsworth was a clean-cut, dashing figure in control. Here, Hemsworth grows his blonde hair long and bulks up to play Thor, most arrogant of all the gods who occupy Asgard – here not so much a home to deities as another dimension occupied by beings of extraordinary power. Among them is Thor’s brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), as mischievous and cunning as Thor is brash and impulsive. Both are mentored by their father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), the All-Father, Lord of Asgard, who promises one of the brothers will one day take his place on the throne.

Thor’s ascension to the throne of Asgard is threatened by the unexpected incursion of old enemies – the hate frost giants of Jotunheim – and a rash decision by the hot-headed “god” leads to his expulsion from Asgard into a world the powerless deity is decidedly unfamiliar with: 21^st century Earth.

If dramatic struggles for the throne and familial struggle sound positively Shakespearean, it’s with good reason: Kenneth Branagh, noted for his stage and cinematic forays into Shakespeare such as Hamlet and Henry V, directs Thor’s Asgard scenes with equal gravity and melodrama. Working from a screenplay by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz and Don Payne, Branagh treats the material like opera: sweeping, grand, and profound. In these early scenes, the script does falter as the writers labor to unload the back story – is there no other way to offer exposition anymore than through a long chunk of voiceover narration? – and for a while the movie skirts a line of sub-Lord of the Rings medieval gobbledygook.

But then a fight happens, and it’s against the backdrop of a beautiful snowscape, one of many impressive digital set pieces. And then Thor is banished from Asgard, where he lands rather dramatically in the New Mexico desert and practically in the lap of pretty young astrophysicist Jane Foster (the suddenly ubiquitous Natalie Portman). And then there’s government agents (S.H.I.E.L.D., if you recall your Iron Man movies), and a robot firing laser beams, and I haven’t barely mentioned Thor’s big hammer (no, really: it’s a giant hammer. A magic one. And it has a name…). And somewhere along the way, Thor transitions from a really bitchin’ game of Dungeons & Dragons into a genuinely fun and worthwhile superhero epic.

What helps is chemistry. Hemsworth’s performance is spot-on in what is likely a star-making turn, and his relationship with Portman’s Jane, despite relatively short screen time, comes off as genuine, showing once again how wasted Portman was in the Star Wars prequels. The film’s shift from the high drama of Asgard to the fish-out-of-water humor of Thor among the mortals is surprisingly seamless, and it’s in no small part to the Portman and Hemsworth’s all-in approach to the story. Hiddleston’s Loki is both conniving and sympathetic, a feat considering the movie’s insistence that no one could possibly figure out that Loki the Trickster God might be up to something. Hopkins, in what could have easily been a paycheck role, gives aging patriarch Odin appropriate and immediate grandeur.

Like Iron Man 2 and several other Marvel Comics-based movies before it, Thor does suffer from being overstuffed with characters; in the rush to get as many fan-favorite characters (and presumably future action figures) on screen, many of the secondary characters get lost. The comics’ much-loved “Warriors Three,” Asgardian warrior princess Sif, and the Avengers’ mainstay member Hawkeye, all compete with the leads, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Portman’s wacky sidekick (Kat Dennings), and a host of minor characters for screen time. Though the glut of underdeveloped characters is not as obtrusive as the otherwise fine Iron Man 2, Thor’s refusal to let its characters and relationships breathe is its only major fault.

Speaking of faults, it should be mentioned that Thor was not shot for 3D, but was later converted for 3D exhibition. It shows. Action scenes are dark and blurry, and the 3D is otherwise pointless unless you really want to feel like you’re sitting in a café next to character actor Stellan Skarsgard. I’m still convinced 3D is a fad (point and laugh at this statement years from now, Internet!), and I think the golden spires of Asgard and the snowy wastes of Jotunheim will look best on a 2D screen as big as you can find.

It’s going to be quite the superhero summer at the movies, with DC’s Green Lantern and Marvel’s own Captain America and X-Men: First Class on the horizon. Fittingly, in the endlessly repeating Ragnarok that is the summer movie season, Thor is a warrior that stands tall. The end credits declare, Bond-style, that “Thor will return in The Avengers.” If this promising first installment is any indication, Thor will be fighting many cinematic battles with moviegoers for quite some time.

3.5 Stars