The latest addition to the Marvel Studios pantheon (is that even the right word? Maybe conveyor belt fits better) is THOR, or THOR 3D if you go to the Belfast Odeon evening showing, where 2D is not an option. Not being a massive comic book reader as a kid, THOR wasn't a character I was particularly familiar with outside of the goofy winged helmet and massive hammer. Lets face it, very few kids want to dress up as THOR.
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| I'd have Perseus ahead of him, but that's just my opinion... |
With Sir Anthony Hopkins (Freejack), Idris Elba (Obsessed) and Stellan Skarsgard (Exorcist: The Begining) delivering 'the ACTing', the role of Thor could easily have been reduced to a grunting, monsylabic stump of wood. Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek) defies these expectations and is a charismatic actor who manages to walk the fine line between tongue in cheek and taking himself too seriously. Not an easy thing when running around shirtless with a large hammer called Fffffffffynar (or something close).
As an origin story, it's pretty solid, nicely setting up THOR as an arrogrant and brash man of war, who 'SPOILER' is humbled by his father Odin (Hopkins), King of Asgard, and betrayed by his brother Loki (the guy from Wallander apparently), and forced to undertake a journey of discovery involving comedic mug smashing, beating up security guards, and wowing Natalie Portman with his quaint chivalry. It all feels a bit stuck together, as if the whole thing has been assembled wholesale from a giant acme-Marvel-genre-kit. It's not as good as Iron Man, but nowhere near as bad as Wolverine. On par with Iron Man 2 I think. I prefer to think of THOR, not as mindless popcorn film designed to sell toys, bedspreads, and over priced 'replica' Ffffffffffffffffffynars to 40 year old men with no kids and too much disposable income, but as a warning on the perils of unchecked adoption.
It is a damning indictment of the welfare system of THOR's homeland Asgard, and the negligence of the local authorities in vetting the suitability of Odin as a foster parent for Loki, whom it turns out is really a frost giant (evil nemeses of the Asgard people), 'rescued' by Odin after the old man had presumably rampaged his way into the frost giant creche following a major battle. Loki understandably has a massive chip on his shoulder based around the fact Odin clearly favours his brother, and that his foster parents didn't tell him of his adoption until he ws 37. Also, the fact Odin steals the baby Loki from the frost giants, without so much as leaving a note, leads me to believe that the Asgard social services must have turned a blind eye to this child abduction. THOR should really look into this abuse of power as soon as he gets a free moment from smiting frost giants and pining after Portman, because it's this sort of institutionalised corruption that gives a royal family a bad name.
Maybe it's due to the involvement of Branagh (Belfast born, and Linfield fan, according to Wikipedia) and Lisburn's own Ray Stevenson (Punisher: War Zone), that I take a kinder view of THOR. A kinder view isn't something I would ascribe to watching this in 3D though, with the film close to inducing flash epilepsy for 'her that would be obeyed' and giving me a mild out-of-body experience whenever THOR took to flying accross the electro-rainbow bridge of cross-dimensionality. I'm firmly in the Mark Keromode anti-3D camp and on the basis of this, am unlikely to be shifted.
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| Already a big seller for Halloween 2011 by all accounts. |
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