Thor

I rarely do movie reviews (although I did say I was going to review all the Star Trek films and have yet to start the second), but Thor has struck me as being a movie worth writing a little about. It absolutely pleasantly surprised me and who does not enjoy a pleasant surprise?

The teaser to the upcoming Thor film took place at the end of Ironman 2 and I really had no idea what it was going to be like. I honestly know nothing about comics beyond what gets translated into film - which is admittedly sketchy at times. Ironman 2 also disappointed me so badly that I had no desire to check out any further Avengers-based superhero movies. The Incredible Hulk was fantastic, Ironman was fantastic, I suppose I should have guessed that this first installment of Thor would be fantastic as well.

Anyway, a Saturday night came up where I had nothing going on and had not seen a movie in the theatre in some time, so I looked up the schedule and found Thor in the cheap theatre. Why not? It had to be worth at least four dollars.

It began and I was slightly confused at the science-geek moment, but the latest Marvel films always seem to blend science into their stories to give them a more legitimate edge...

...and then the movie dove straight into Norse mythology and I was totally hooked. It was an absolutely brilliant transition. There was depth, there was character, and oh-my-god there was honest to goodness STORY.

My biggest issue with many movies these days is the fact that Hollywood likes to "wow" us with visual effects and endless action after action scene, but they didn't make that mistake with Thor. No, all the action sequences were beautifully crafted and honed to move the storyline forward instead of halting it in its tracks and promptly stomping it to death. There was not a second too much action and not a second too little.

And characters! Such a repertoire of characters and not one of them was lost or distorted or pointless and all cast perfectly. And shall I tell you of the villain that has you begging the entire time that he actually is not the villain? You want him to actually be good and to turn from his erroneous ways and even at the end you still aren't entirely certain if he was truly "bad".

Yes, Thor was brilliantly written and directed and acted. Had I done a little research, I would have known. Kenneth Branagh directed the movie and I loved his renditions of Frankenstein and Hamlet. J. Michael Straczynski co-wrote the screenplay and, in my opinion, you cannot get a better science-fiction story developer than said creator of Babylon 5.

The only minor flaw I saw in Thor was the romantic portion of the story. I just could not see Thor being remotely interested in Natalie Portman's character of Jane Foster. The warrior woman, Sif, seemed to be much more his type - although perhaps that would have been too typical. Honestly, if Thor had gone for the nerdy (but equally attractive) Darcy Lewis I actually would have found that pairing to be more believable.

Romance aside, Thor is as near perfect as I can credit such a movie. It was satisfying on all levels and even had the mild cliff-hanger ending rather than the stereo-typical "boy and girl are reunited and everyone is happy" ending.

Very much a 5 out of 5 Mjōlnir hammers for this movie-goer.