Thor

Thor is based on the Marvel comics about the Nordic god of Thunder banished from the mystical land of Asgard due to his ignorance and foolishness to behave as a ruler, as opposed to a warrior wanting to challenge someone to duel every oppurtunity he got. I will be honest; I have never read a Thor or Avenger comic, but I do have a fair knowledge of Nordic mythology (thanks to my honors World History class project over Vikings). So while there is a void to the accuracy to the comics, I can compare to a certain extent about the depiction of Nordic mythology in the movie. My Dad is a big comic book nerd, so he is very familiar with the Thor comics, and tells me that the accuracy to the comics is almost identical. So, with that said, I will mainly be critiquing on the film quality, as to the film accuracy, per se. Now, I shall cease my rambling and begin with my movie review of Thor!!!

To be honest, I acutually was a little skeptical when I went to the early sceening of Thor with my Dad in late April. I just didn't think that a film about mythology and gods would appeal to me. I had just assumed that it would be any other superhero/comic book movie with villans and heroes beating each other to a bloody pulp, the villan loses, and the hero gets the girl...the end. What suprised me about this film was that even though it was a little predictable at times, it still left me on the edge of my seat the entire time. It had me continually guessing what Loki was up to with the Frost Giants, what Thor would end up doing, ect. Overall, this film was very unpredictable most of the time, which left me wanting to know how it all plays out.
Oh, I didn't necessarily answer my own retorical question! I came into the movie theatre skeptical and little worried. I left that movie theatre shocked with a big smile telling my dad, "That movie was awesome!!!"

Suprisingly, this movie was quite hilarious! Thor's demeanor and behavior when he comes to Earth and is confused with human life is just down-right funny. I was rolling in my seat pretty much half of the movie...then again, I laugh at almost anything. Nevertheless, Marvel did an excellent job of mixing humor into the film; a fine balance between action/comical/serious/ and superheroes.

The Nordic mythology was very accurate, I have to say. Now, I am not going to act like I am a history teacher and know every possible thing about Vikings and Nordic mythology, because I clearly do not. However, under my curiousity, I did a little research about Noridc gods and was very pleased with Thor's excellent depiction of Noridc mythology. For example, in the film if you noticed, Odin only has one eye, for the other has a patch over it. Well, according to Nordic mythology, Odin is depicted to have only one eye. So, just little things like that had me impressed. Overall, they were extremely accurate where mythology lied.

This film had a little bit of everything in it. It wasn't one of those typical superhero movies where if you have seen one of them, you have seen all of them. It has a combination of many different aspects that people of preferred movie styles would enjoy. If you are more of a die-hard romantic person, I would have to say that maybe this film wouldn't be for you. Yes, Jane Foster and Thor share a special love (if it is even love; he was on Earth for, what? Maybe a week...?), but since it was brief, maybe you should look else where. In speaking of their relationship, I was acutally kind of glad how they chose to end their relationship; it was one of those where they are in love, but they can't be together. It didn't end like most sappy romance movies where they go off riding into the sunset and all the conflicts just happened to work out and they live happily every after...posh. Well, they techincally didn't end their relationship, per se. He basically dumped her when he destroyed that bridge with that awesome hammer. So, oh well.
If you more of an action person, you would totally dig this film. Thor has epic fight scenes between gods v.s huge Frost Giants, which were quite impressive, if I do say so myself.
And, obviously, if have acutally read the Thor comics, you would most defintely love this film. My Dad tells me that it is exactly like the comics, so there is nothing to worry about going to the movies and seeing a total rip-off of the movies.

But besides that, the movie plot was very easy to follow, easy to understand, and just simply a great movie.
Chris Hemsworth was an excellent choice for Thor; he even looked like someone from the Nordic area, with blond hair and blue eyes. Besides his physical apperance, he just did an outstanding job as Thor. And I have to say, he didn't look bad at all without his shirt off.
Natalie Portman (Jane Foster) wasn't outstanding, and she wasn't terrible. She was good, don't get me wrong; but it just wasn't very rememberable and eyecatching. At times, she seemed a little too excited about all her research and studies...oh well.
Anthony Hopkins (Odin)....well, was Anthony Hopkins. He was very good, too, even for how short he was on screen.
Tom Hiddleston (Loki) was acutally one of my favorite acting performances. He did a fantastic job as the conflicted adopted son of Odin, trying to find his place amongst the gods.
Besides that, all the other minor characters, such as the gods, agents, and Foster's two friends, were also equally good. Foster's friend Darcy, was hilarous!

Overall, I coulnd't find anything wrong with this movie. It was just a very good film that I would recommend making the trip to the movie theatre to see for fun. Although its rating is PG-13, the action in the film wasn't that scary, and I do not recall hearing any suggestive language or cuss words. So this movie is totally child-approved. Simply, just a great movie! I cannot wait to see when the sequel hits theatres!! Well, there better be a Thor 2, because if they leave all millions of us viewers wondering if Thor and Jane every see each other again, there will be an uproar! Or just a lot of disappoited fans....who knows.

Movie Grade:        A !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!