Thor, 2011

Thor, 2011
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman, Chris Hemsworth



Stage: Local theatre, late Friday show. Just a pop in my head makes me run as hell to catch the show. As I miss the trailer part and commercial, I feel pretty satisfied with myself, as the movie begins in an instant, as I sit down.


Thor in short: This epic adventure spans the Marvel Universe; from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans as punishment. Once here, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth. Kenneth Branagh directs this fantasy epic which stars Australian actor Chris Hemsworth as the ancient Norse god, Tom Hiddleston as his evil brother Loki, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, a young woman who befriends Thor on Earth, and Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Thor's father and king of Asgard.


Preps: None in perticular, have seen the trailer, seems like a thing I would love to see in theatre, because of the effects and sounds.


Reality: Hm, it's fairly amusing, but that's it. Too much of photo shop and movie maker scenes make me not buy the scenery. It's obviously made in a computer room, and not by someone with a lot of imagination. I am not impressed at all. Normalwise, I prefer scenes that derive from imagination, to those that are filmed in real life. Here it's vice versa. Better constructed, with some vision and some energy. With real dialogues and some humorous scenes. For instance, imagine real god tremble into a real life with every day scenery - eating, sleeping, living like a human. All in all, this is supposed to be a punishment for Thor, for being too conceited and not ready to learn. With some help of a human mind, he turns into a good guy.. well, the transformation is too fast and I definitely don't buy it. If you have lived all your life as a conceited first son, ready to be a king, then you cannot really transform your soul and mind in a few days. Probably in a decade, or so, but in this piece everything is shown a bit too romantic - in sense of me trying to buy this and to accept it.

Natalie has definitely been a busy bee lately. I can see her in four movies at the same time. Unfortunately, none of them can raise up to the Black Swan - the cast here is poor and unsatisfactory, the same goes for Anthony Hopkins. Not enough energy coming out of this man. Hemsworth, on the other side, represents some sort of a back up of Brad Pitt in Troy. Nevertheless, the story is weak and too light to be seen in a real spectacle. It's more of a Sunday movie, when you have just eaten and just want something to amuse you and not knock you off your feet. And if you put into perception there is a divine world as opposed to normal human.
For Hopkin's cast - slightly better than in his other latest movie, The rite. In neither of both cases, an exclusive or impressive one. Nevertheless, always good to watch on screen.

The music shows respect to the scenario and to the scenes, wisely chosen and emphasizes the effect of some battles. Another thing that got me a bit cranky during watching this - the "doors" to other worlds. Just by coincidence taken from Stargate (the idea is the same, and the execution also almost the same). And the names of the world. Are we in LOTR or are we in some other movie.. well, it's a wise idea to be pulled on the ocean of other successful movies, but you need to draw a line somewhere and make your piece a bit more authenthic. Because to perceive viewers not so intelligent as some of them are.. is - well naive. I would prefer the worlds to be of another wording (Asgard - as in LOTR - Ares of Asgard); just a coincidence, that here it's one of the lands? ..

Anyhow, not really a splendid piece, but a pleasant Sunday one, as already said.


My personal rating: 4,0 (for the sake of the amusement).
Thor on IMDB