So, despite the fact that I scraped ice off of my car yesterday before going into work, summer movie season is upon us, and hopefully more advanced screenings are upon us! My first advanced screening of this summer came thanks to KDWB and was for the movie THOR (which was a part of Marvel's character movies leading up to THE AVENGERS the much talked about supermovie coming out in 2o12).
For those who don't know or leave before the credits end, THOR was the character/film that was teased at by the final scene in IRON MAN 2. And before we go any further in my review I must say this: I have no serious knowledge of this world from the comics...all that I know of the connections come from watching IRON MAN 1 and 2, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, and now THOR. (The next film leading up to it CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER will be out July 22nd.)
But enough about other movies...let's get to THOR.
I liked this movie a lot more than I thought I would. Having no background and with my limited knowledge I went into it because I had liked Iron Man and Incredible Hulk but they are a little more popular main stream characters that I had heard of. Thor I didn't know of but figured the others were good and it would be good to know how he fit into the Avengers' world.
The advanced screening was shown in the fad "3D mode" (yes, it's a fad and I refuse to believe otherwise) which surprised me, in a good way, that the movie chose that way to show the films. Usually for advanced screenings you don't get a "premium" like that, which impressed me. And while it was shot for 3D and so the 3D didn't look cheap but my personal objections to 3D aside - it really didn't do anything to benefit the movie. No, Thor's hammer flying right at the screen or anything like that. Will people still see it in 3D? No doubt. But you're not going to lose anything by choosing the 2D version. In fact treat yourself to something nice with the money you are saving.
It took me a little bit to get into the story in Thor's home of Asgard, but it was necessary character background and info and was worth going through, it just took a few times into that part of the story for the flow of the movie to really hit its stride.
I thought this movie was perfectly cast. Chris Hemsworth played the title character and was a great selection. Most will recognize him as Captain Kirk's father in the opening scene of JJ Abrams' STAR TREK (2009). And I loved Kat Dennings (Nick and Nora, Charlie Bartlett) who provided absolutely stellar comic relief and while in a smaller role, knocked her character out of the park and seemed to have a lot of fun with the role. Another great choice was Natalie Portman, fresh off of her best actress win, who again seems to just be having a lot of fun with her role in this movie. And the more I saw of Tom Hiddleston's role as Loki (Thor's brother) throughout the film the more that performance grew on me. And the rest of the roles were cast just as good.
I can't speak to if they truly represented the characters as they were portrayed in the comics but as for this film things were about as good as they possibly could have been.
The film was extremely fun and I ended up liking the balance between seeing the action on Earth and Asgard. Like watching Iron Man, with a touch of 300 or another "ancient epic" type movie blended in. Also it follows along with a theme that I've liked in the previous movies of ordinary people becoming heroes, and it is very fun watching Thor's journey. However, at the end I was left wanted more (surely the intention of the movie) so its a good thing that we can enter into another chapter of the story with CAPTAIN AMERICA in a couple of months.
Very fun, see it in 2D but definitely see it.
THOR is in theaters this Friday, May 6th
4/5 stars
-Dav3
