THOR

“THOR” (Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman & Anthony Hopkins)

Was not a fan of the comic book so I had no interest in this film when I heard about it. When I saw the trailer, Hemsworth (Thor) looked like another ‘wrassler-turned-actor’ so that made it official – I won’t be wasting my time seeing ‘Thor’.
Then 3 things happened; I saw an extended trailer which made the film look much more interesting; Found out Hemsworth isn’t a wrassler but an Australian actor (& I have a long list of Aussie actors that I like) & one review compared it to ‘Iron Man’ because it was funny and the quality of acting was several cuts above your usual comic book movie. The only problem I had was that it wasn’t very funny – a few chuckling moments, lots of grins and my favorite line, “Base command, we’ve got Xena, Jackie Chan & Robin Hood walking down the street here,” was spoken by an unknown extra.
But ‘Thor’ IS a cut above most comic book movies - & this comes from someone who ISN’T a fan of the genre; I love the ‘Iron Man’ series basically because of what Robert Downey, Jr. bring to the table & I’ve liked the new Batman’s with Christian Bale (though not as much as the masses) Other than those – all other comic book movies basically suck.
This doesn’t suck and the acting might be the chief reason; after ‘The Wolfman’, I was leery of being able to take Sir Anthony seriously as a quality actor again- he sort of redeems himself here, but oddly enough, he doesn’t stand out. Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, the earthling Thor meets when he’s cast out of Asgard & worm-holed to earth does a much better acting job here than she did in ‘Black Swan’.
‘Thor’ also has a interesting storyline; though I found it preposterous that dozens of ‘Frost Monsters’ couldn’t overtake a handful of human-like Asgardians (Including Xena, Jackie Chan & Robin Hood)
But the key to making this comic book movie stand out is the character relationships between Thor and his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and the simmering ‘Smothers Brothers’ animosity that grows because ‘dad always liked you best’. Thor’s broken relationship with his father (Hopkins as Odin) after he defies the old man - and then Thor’s disdain for human’s changing rapidly as he becomes hopelessly attracted to Jane.
‘Thor’ is visually impressive as well; the blue ‘Frosty People’ who are three times the size of Asgardians but can’t seem to win a battle even with the aide of an overweight T. Rex (Introduced in a laughable ‘release the Kraken’ style) were still frightening villains.
I did find it odd that Jane traveled with an older man (Stellan Skarsgard as Erik) who didn’t seem to serve any useful purpose in her studies and Darcy (Kat Dennings) a young girl who took the arrival of Mythical gods & legends with a grain of salt.
But despite the silly moments & odd pairings, ‘Thor’ is an enjoyable watch. It isn’t as entertaining as ‘Iron Man’; though Downey’s character is mentioned when a gigantic metallic robot is ‘beamed’ to earth & the FBI agent in charge asks, “Is that one of Starks?”
‘Thor’ even won my wife’s approval; when I asked her if she liked it, she replied, “Yes, it was fine... he’s easy on the eyes.”
So there you have it, despite all the wrinkles & the eye patch, Anthony Hopkins can still make the ladies swoon... Or perhaps she meant the Aussie who played Thor?