Movie Review: Thor

I am Thor, god of thunder, pecs, and abs!

By Cat Viglienzoni — May 23, 2011

Let me begin with a note to actor Chris Hemsworth, star of Thor: Love what you’ve done with the abs. But please shave like you did for the beginning of Star Trek (before your untimely death).

So, Thor is an… interesting… movie. First off, if you aren’t up on your comic-book knowledge, it’s kind-of linked to Iron Man, and if you bothered to stick around for the end of the credits on Iron Man 2 you’d know that already. But other than a couple references, it’s not important (yet).

What is important is the fact that Norse mythology has been pulverized by the hammer of Marvel Comics and strewn throughout the earth via the cinema. Thor, if you also aren’t up on your Norse mythology, is the god of thunder. He has a day of the week named after him: Thursday (that’s Thor’s-day… get it?). But apparently he’s really just a prince from another universe that the Vikings mistook for a god. Because, you see, magic is just science we don’t understand… or something like that.

But Thor is also arrogant, brash and too annoying to remain good-looking. So when he gets too big for his britches (and by that I mean he pretty much starts a war with the Na’vi’s polar, ice-throwing cousins), his dad Odin (Anthony Hopkins), banishes him to Earth via the rainbow bridge (which sounds like something from “My Little Pony”) on some sort of exile/extended timeout.

After he lands, he gets bashed a couple times by Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster (who is a brilliant astrophysicist or whatever but a terrible driver), who’s driving around New Mexico chasing star patterns or something. Love at first sight ensues.

Of course, inter-realm chaos breaks out after this, but I’m not going to give away any spoilers, other than saying that there are some unnecessary character elements to Thor’s younger brother Loki (that’s the Norse trickster god, and he’s played by Tom Hiddleson) that are thrown in but not capitalized on.

There’s a big hammer involved in the story. Construction workers may have hammer envy coming out of this movie.

There’s also a gatekeeper for the realm who is awesome. His name is Heimdall (Idris Elba). He has orange eyes. And a massive sword. That is all.

They also transport between worlds on the rainbow bridge, which one accesses via a spinning sphere with a massive spike. I admit I giggled when I saw it.

And, as with most movies destined to generate sequels, it’s ending isn’t tied up nicely. So don’t expect anything to really end. I admit I didn’t stick around for the end of the credits, so I have no idea if there was a tidbit there. Since Iron Man had them, this one could very well have as well. I’m sure I’ll be able to YouTube it if I’m curious enough later on.

Overall: entertaining movie with some pretty fun fight scenes, but could have worked a bit better on the character development. And the Norse mythology.

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