Review: Thor

You don’t need to be the smartest deity in the room to see that Thor is not an easy sell. After all, this is a summer blockbuster about a hammer-wielding Norse god prone to bellowing in pompous Shakespearean verse whilst bashing his enemies. Factor in that it is also one of the key building blocks in the assembly of Marvel’s highly-anticipated Avengers movie and you’ve got a gamble of truly mythical proportions on your hands.

But just when people were getting ready to jeer and point fingers, Kenneth Branagh caught everyone off-guard by turning in a highly entertaining and truly innovative superhero flick. If you want to put a label on it, think of Thor as Marvel’s Lord of the Rings.

The plot is truly the stuff of epic tragedies. Just as he is about to be crowned the new king of Asgard, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is stripped of his powers and banished to Earth by the all-father Odin (Anthony Hopkins, in an uninspired performance) for having violently disrupted the delicate truce between his people and the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. It is on Earth that Thor must learn the ways of humility before he can reclaim the throne to Asgard by facing his evil and newly-empowered brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

In the hands of a first-time filmmaker Thor could’ve been easily fumbled, but Branagh manages to handle the material with the discretion and respect it deserves, mainly thanks to his experience with Shakespeare adaptations. As a result Loki comes off less as a hammed-up supervillain and more like a bitter, manipulative trickster who resembles King Lear’s Edmund, or Othello’s Iago. It is to Tom Hiddleston’s credit that he remains such a mesmerising character. But Chris Hemsworth is just as memorable in his first leading role. He possesses the looks, charm and deep tone to pass off as the titular God of Thunder, but is also very affecting in his scenes with Natalie Portman, who plays the human scientist he falls for during his time on Earth.

What unexpectedly bring the film down are the action sequences and the running time. Comic book blockbusters tend to leave their biggest set-piece for last, but Thor’s brawl with the Destroyer, an enchanted, energy-blasting automaton, feels rushed and low-scale when compared to his thunderous battle with the Frost Giants in the film’s opening half-hour. And while 115 minutes aren’t exactly a short run, this is one of those rare cases where you wish you’d spent a little while longer in the presence of these disarming, colourful characters.   

But these are just minor quibbles that a sequel will no doubt fix. The fact that Thor is nowhere near the laughing stock it could’ve so easily been is already a triumph in itself. The fact that it’s a rather good movie is a welcome bonus.

4/5