- Location: Century Boulder
- If there had to be a Thor movie -- and seeing it failed to convince me either way on that point -- I'm glad that Chris Hemsworth landed the lead role. Without a doubt, the guy absolutely nailed the look and attitude of Asgard's strongest, bravest, and most reckless son. Moreover, he actually seemed to be having fun doing it, which is more than I can say for most of his superhero contemporaries. Too bad, then, about the rest of the film. If only we could have spent more time with Thor and less time with visually confusing, CGI-drenched fight scenes and unremarkable secondary characters, maybe the audience could have shared in some of that fun, too.
- The story is probably roughly familiar to anyone with a passing interest in either comic-book or Norse mythology. Thor misbehaves, his stern father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) banishes him to Earth, and his mischievous brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) stirs up trouble. There are further Asgardian details having to do with frost giants (played by Colm Feore) and various minor deities (played by various minor actors), but none of that is terribly important. The point is that Thor crash-lands in Midgard only to end up in the company of an attractive young scientist named Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), her surrogate father (and the audience's surrogate Icelander) Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård), and her superfluous friend Darcy (Kat Dennings). Two-thirds of these people are "astrophysicists," which naturally means that they're investigating links between thunderstorms and Einstein-Rosen bridges by cruising through the American Southwest in a van. One imagines that such research would have culminated in a non-peer reviewed mass e-mail proving that "Uncertainty Principle is Untenable!" but thankfully the gods intervene.
- Trouble is, Thor lacks his hammer. Without Mjolner, the God of Thunder is little more than a remarkably chiseled blonde guy who talks funny, so his first priority is to retrieve the weapon from a government agent named Coulson (Clark Gregg), whose presence in this film is slightly more natural than it was in Iron Man 2. But it turns out that Thor can't lift his hammer out of the ground! Perhaps he needs to fall in love with Jane first? Maybe defeating an autonomous suit of armor sent by Loki will help? Only then will he be able to return to Asgard, topple Loki, restore his honor, and save his people. And so on and so forth.
- Gods forgive me for making these proceedings sound rather dull, but even Thor's charisma is insufficient to make up for the film's mighty shortcomings. While Hemsworth is great and Portman and Hiddleston are adequate, the rest of the cast seems dreadfully bored. Even the anticipated scenery-chewing of Hopkins and Rene Russo (who plays Thor's mother) fails to materialize, which is a shame. And then there's the look of the film. Although CGI admittedly works wonders for Asgard, the physics of wormholes apparently renders it completely underwhelming in the other realms, particularly during battles. More distracting still, however, is Kenneth Branagh's weird appetite for canted shots that, at the risk of making an old joke, make it feel like the cameraman hasn't had his V8. When even Odin falls asleep halfway through the film, you know you're in trouble.
- Jeremy Renner has a cameo as Hawkeye.
- Stan Lee and some other comic book guys have cameos, too.
- The film features a post-credits scene that I couldn't bring myself to wait around for. Youtube shows that it is a revelation that Loki is...gasp...still alive.
