I don’t actually want to write this review…..
Those of you unfortunate enough to read this blog on a regular basis will know that I have been a failure of a so-called Marvel geek and taken far too long to see Thor. I finally got around to it last night. I hadn’t originally planned to write a review seeing as most of you got over it way back in Summer when it came out. Unfortunately though, I find myself compelled to say some things. (There will be **SPOILERS** throughout as I’m pretty sure you’ve all seen this movie by now)
I never thought I’d find myself writing this, but I didn’t love Thor.
I’m a firm believer in the second time theory, and I’m hoping that watching it again when I’m not so tired (double weekend on duty with St John) will change my opinion, but for a film I had been looking forward to for so long and heard so many great things about, I couldn’t help but be disappointed.
For me, Thor basically fell into the same trap as Daredevil for feeling underdeveloped. None of the characters seemed to really have much depth or motive to what they were doing, and much as I wanted to I couldn’t find myself getting behind any of them that much. Even Loki, a character I couldn’t wait to see on the big screen didn’t really live up to my expectations. If you’re going to use the Daddy Issue plot device, you’ve got to give us something to work with, but from what I could see there really wasn’t much for Loki to be complaining about, and the fact hat he said he never wanted to be King just made his role in the plot even more confusing. I never really got what he was trying to achieve, especially as he was letting the frost giants in all along. I know he’s supposed to be all “mischievous” but selling out your whole world to the monsters from another dimension just for the craic doesn’t really seem to make sense.
As for Thor, yes Chris Hemsworth has pretty hair, but other than that there wasn’t much too him. The whole point of Thor (brought to my attention by the awesome and far more knowledgeable about these things Jackie) is that unlike other superheroes, he starts out super and loses his power, so instead of having to learn to deal with his strength, he has to learn humility. Yes, this happens in the movie, but it all seemed a bit too….well, easy. One little moment of selflessness (and all in the name of a pretty girl) and suddenly all his sins are forgiven.
Speaking of pretty ladies, I’m a big fan of Natalie Portman, and she does well with what she has in the film, but the relationship between her character and Thor just felt forced to me. I don’t know about you, but I don’t tend to fall head over heels for a guy with questionable mental status who I’ve known for about 48 hours. They just didn’t have any believable chemistry.
Not wanting to keep listing things I didn’t like, but the script felt clunky in places too. I know that some of the lines were cheesy in a deliberate way, but some of the lines that were supposed to be funny fell a bit flat. Maybe that’s a consequence of watching it by myself, I don’t know.
I don’t want to sound massively negative; I definitely didn’t hate the film. I thought the score was great, and the design of Asgard really was beautiful, especially the disco dancefloor bridge. I’ve got to get me one of those.
It’s the age-old problem of a hyped up movie not living up to high expectations. The only thing I’m a little bit worried about is having had a similarly mediocre reaction to Captain America, The Avengers might not be the cinematic event I want it to be. But then Avengers will have one thing these two films didn’t: Iron Man.
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In watching THOR, I couldn’t help but get memories of SPIDER-MAN. Like Spidey’s first swing across the silver screen, THOR felt like it wanted to put all the pieces on the board and make us understand how the pieces can move. Give the audience a thrill or two but generally speaking set the staqe and get out.
I thought that THOR was amusing in how it introduced us to the mythos, but you’re bang-on: There’s no real weight to any of them.
The good news is that SPIDER-MAN got so very much better its second time out, knowing full-well that everyone was on board, and it could take things in a more nuanced direction. My hope is that THOR 2 follows a similar course.
Great post!
Ryan McNeil
November 15, 2011
Thanks for the comment Ryan. I suppose I hadn’t really thought about Tho2 because I was all wrapped up in The Avengers, but I think you’re right. I generally like the first part in series of movies the least because I’m not really one for set up, so maybe the next installment in the Thor storyline will give me what I was looking for.
Katie
November 16, 2011
I could sum up my similar Thor experience in one word… Pantomime.
Obviously comic book adaptations have to be a little ‘out there’, but this just reminded me of Am-dram, campy, screwball. The action was sloppy, and I just felt that it was a film for the sake of being another superhero cash-cow film.
Paragraph Film Reviews
November 16, 2011
I know what you mean, it felt unpolished, like it was being churned out quickly to get it in before Avengers but without due care and attention being paid to it.
Katie
November 17, 2011
[…] a studio execs eye, but since then we’ve had a pretty much relentless build up in Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain […]
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