When it comes to comic books, I mostly identify myself as an X-Man fan...so, Marvel's Mutant stories are what interest me the most. What I know of Spider Man, Iron Man, Captain America and Thor come mostly from their cross-overs with the X-Men and are nothing that would single me out as particularly geeky. Luckily, this hasn't kept from enjoying the most recent run of comic book movies..if we just forget that Daredevil and Electra(and Fantastic 4 #2) ever happened, comic book movies have been pretty decent the last ten years or so.
Thor was a good movie. Comparing it to other comic book movies, I would say it is right about up there with the first Iron Man movie, which means it still falls short of The Dark Night.
The two concerns I had heading into Thor were could you find an actor that could pull off Being Thor, and would Sir Anthony Hopkins, playing the role of Odin, phone it in for a pay check?
Well, Sir Anthony didn't phone it in...he did a fine job playing Odin, even if Odin did sound a bit like Hannibal Lecter. On the other concern, Chris Hemsworth did an outstanding job as Thor. I was a little worried because with the Hulk, you can use CGI. With Iron Man, it's CGI in suit...but Thor has always just been a big, blond haired guy...and Chris Hemsworth was big enough to pull it off. The added benefit of this was that as my wife was oooh and ahhing over how nice he looked, she didn't notice me making the same noises over the female leads.
Natalie Portman is Natalie Portman. She sure is pretty, and she is recognized as being a good actress. She plays the mortal Jane Foster, an astrophysicist researching the atmospheric convulsions caused by the Asgardians making the jump to Midgard(Earth).
Kat Dennings plays Natalie's Portman's assistant. She acts as the films comic relief element, and she is criminally under used. I have dug her quite a lot ever since seeing her in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. While reading reviews of the movie, I came across pictures taken at the premier of Thor, and found this one. Allow me to indulge my baser red-blooded male instincts for a minute.
Hubba Hubba...that's your comic relief?
Okay...back to the movie.
Tim Hiddleston, playing Loki, has just as much effect on the movie as Thor....every good hero needs a good villian, and Loki is a good one. It's amazing what happens when you bring in actual actors to act in your comic book movies....people care about them. While there is no doubt in this one Loki is the bad guy, Hiddleston makes you at least feel some sympathy for him. He's bad, but he's not slimy bad.
The final bit of casting that threw me for a loop was seeing Rene Russo playing Frigga, Thor's MOM!!!!!! Yes, I guess she is approaching 60(just turned 57) but...it's Rene Russo...she's a hottie..she's not supposed to be playing a God's MOM!!!!!
Good movie...give it a B+. Now, we just need Captain America not to suck, and we can all have high hopes for The Avenger's next summer.
The only two disappointments from this movie are that Natalie Portman drives this kick-butt 4WD white van that my wife wants BADLY now. As near as I can tell, it is a Austrian Model 710K Pinzgauer. Not exactly a dime a dozen.
The other disappointment is ZERO usage of the KISS version of God of Thunder. Could have at least had it playing on a car radio or something.
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