Movie Review: Thor

This Summer, we kick off our movie season with the big screen adaptation of Marvel Comics' "Thor" starring Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, and Natalie Portman.

That seems like a decent way to begin, right?

And it was.
A decent way to start. 

By now, you more or less know who Thor is, but if you don't, here's the short version....he's the god of thunder and he wields a hammer that can do some serious damage. Earthquake level damage, not like the kind that just has you needing to call a drywall contractor.

In the film, Thor's daddy casts him out of the Kingdom of Asgard because he's too high strung, and causes way too much trouble for the people of Asgard. SO, naturally he sends him to the shit hole that is Earth.

We are then treated to the usual "fish out of water" material that this type of storyline dictates...not understanding that he can't act the way he does in his world, not understanding why we act the way we do in ours, etc. etc.

I was never a big fan of Thor as a superhero, for some reason, he just never appealed to me. So, naturally when I heard they were making a big screen version, I wasn't exactly thrilled.

That said, I walked away completely satisfied with the way Kenneth Branagh translated the character to our world. A character that seemed to me unworkable in a real world environment, worked perfectly well, and more importantly, this Marvel world that is being built for us leading up to "The Avengers" film has maintained it's integrity. 

My one gripe with Thor is that I felt it spent too much time on the love story between Hemsworth and Portman, and didn't give us as much action as I would have wanted. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't lopsided....in fact it was probably perfectly balanced for the men who want to see a hammer smashing the shit out of things, AND their dates who want to see Thor being gentle with the woman he has his eye on.

I always have a problem with the superhero/mortal love stories, by the way. I know it sounds cliche' at this point, but wouldn't these guys kill the woman during sex?

Seriously?

Thor as a whole, works well overall. I wasn't blown away by it, but I wasn't unhappy with it either.

You KNOW you're going to see it anyway, so really none of this matters...it's the Summer F'N Movie Season, after all...why would you not?

Oh, and before I leave, let me give you this one piece of advice...DON'T pay extra for the 3D version...there was really no benefit that I could see to warrant the extra cash.

By the way, while I was writing this, I had "Hot Dog: The Movie" playing in the background.
Why do I do that shit to myself?