Movie Review: Thor (2011)

Superheroes and I don’t typically get along so well, thanks to a general distaste for Silver Age moralizing and any level of fanboyism, along with a preference for characters to mature and stories to come to a form of closure. Anyone who’s read a comic book in the last ever likely knows about the comics industry’s allergy to letting an Intellectual Property (IP) end when it reaches a logical conclusion, rather than about ten years after it stops being relevant. The recent onslaught of superhero movies is accompanied by all the comic nerds belching a variety of complaints about the lack of adherence to the patently absurd existing canon of whatever childhood icon on display this week.

Thor takes those complaints and kicks them into a volcano before flying on a rainbow to the far side of the Planet Awesome, better known as Asgard. And it only gets better from there.

Wherever they found Chris Hemsworth, and whatever he does after this movie, are both irrelevant. This man was born and raised to play Thor, god of thunder, immense ham, and cocky warrior-prince, sent to Earth to learn a lesson in humility. They must have made the sets out of candy, because he, and in fact most of the cast – the ever-talented Sir Anthony Hopkins as Odin, especially – chew the scenery with gusto. There is not a single ounce of subtlety to this movie; based on the performances, I imagine the script was basically the words “Do Awesome Stuff” underlined several times with a couple pages of “Thor Gets Run Over By a Car” and “This Scene Includes a Giant Rainbow Laser” because honestly, what else do you need to know to act in this movie?

Whenever Thor is not on screen self-parodying, though, the movie tends to drag. The conspiracy to conquer Planet Awesome, perpetuated by the triple-crossing machinations of Loki, troll of the universe, wastes screen time better spent on getting into special effects fights. The astrophysicists who follow Thor around – the least believable scientists since Denise Richards in “The World Is Not Enough”, Natalie Portman and Kat Dennings, spend their screen time lusting audibly at Mr. Hemsworth’s abs – are generally useless, even as audience stand-ins. The climax drags a bit, but as all superhero movies must, Thor ends on a positive note. 

WATCH IF YOU LIKE: Turning off your brain, special effects, man abs

SKIP IF YOU DISLIKE: Useless characters, black/Asian Norse gods, Natalie Portman in non-skimpy clothing

FINAL VERDICT: Rent. Unless you are particular attached to Chris Hemsworth’s abs or to the Thor property, I wouldn’t suggest watching this more than once. That said, if you can turn off your credulous nature for an hour or two, it’s a wild and unapologetic ride through space on a rainbow laser.

IMDB's entry on "Thor".