Another month and yet another comic book adaptation. At least that’s the way it probably feels to the casual cinemagoer when regarding Thor. But look a little closer at this film and there are a number of interesting details.
Kenneth Branagh is the most important: it’s his first feature directorial role in four years, and what I way to come out of exile. The Brit made his name taking the stage to the screen, turning in some impressive Shakespearean adaptations, but Thor is another beast entirely it’s like Shakespeare on steroids, and Branagh has approached it as such, amping up the familial conflict and bringing along some board-tredding buddies just for good measure.
Tom Hiddleston is the most obvious, the young English actor having both stage and screen history with the director, and he brings some remarkable, watery-eyed gravity to the role of the mischievous but darkened Loki, Thor’s brother. Less obvious, perhaps, is the appearance of Colm Feore an actor also known for his scene stealing character work as the sinister Frost Giant king, Laufey. And of course there’s Anthony Hopkins, the man who in every role adds a little stage to the screen. Merely by their appearance, these three help confirm Thor’s secondary purpose as a bridge between onstage tragedy and Marvel Comics fantasy.
If it’s Branagh’s love of stage that shows on the one hand, it’s perhaps his down-home Englishness that appears on the other with the casting of Home & Away alumnus Chris Hemsworth as Thor, the God of Thunder. Hemsworth is about as far away from the New Globe Theatre as you can possibly get, and he’s hardly a bankable star. But the Australian delivers what he needs to physical presence and disarming humour, plus he’s wise enough to facilitate the rapid character development foisted upon Thor in a little under two hours.
At the start of the film, Thor is the powerful but arrogant son of Odin (Hopkins), the ruler of Asgard and keeper of a peace that settled over the nine realms centuries ago. When, on the day of Thor’s coronation as king, a small group of evil Frost Giants slip into Asgard, it threatens to plunge Odin and his people back into war. Thor, bristling over the surreptitious incursion, doesn’t help matters at all by travelling to the Frost Giants’ home planet and engaging in a foolish battle with Laufey.
Odin, furious with his son, strips him of his power and banishes him to earth. There he meets scientists Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), and becomes the focus of a clandestine federal investigation. Meanwhile, with Thor’s absence and Odin’s failing health, Asgard is flung into a dangerous power vacuum the Frost Giants seeing this as an opportunity to strike at their archenemies.
It’s a breezy crimping of a number of different story strands that run through Marvel’s Thor universe, and the film itself wasn’t without it’s own script revisions, screenwriters Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz working on a story by J. Michael Straczynski and Mark Protosevich, before Don Payne stepped in to develop a final draft. The celluloid version gives this away through its smaller elements certain character arcs seem a touch rushed and specific scenes perhaps run for longer than they should but Thor, as it rolls off the screen, is generally of a piece.
Helping immeasurably is the spectacular production design, courtesy of the seasoned Bo Welch. Taking his cues from the comic and infusing them with some vigorous nods to the more offbeat sci-fi offerings of the last 30 years (think Dune crossed with Flash Gordon), Welch has fleshed out a dazzling world that easily sucks in the viewer. So much so that when the film transfers to Earth, things become a little flat by comparison. It’s just a shame that all that eye-popping colour is diluted somewhat by the darkened 3D glasses.
For his part Branagh does an admirable job, upping the Shakespearean tragedy of Thor’s familial conflicts and holding his nerve during the action scenes, producing something that’s a step toward the more traditional when it comes to modern shaky cam and ADD editing. The final showdowns come as a bit of an anticlimax, the film setting itself up as it has to for future instalments, as well as Thor’s entry into the realm of the Avengers signposted here by the reappearance of both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) but the filmmakers have diligently drawn the stakes and made us care about the characters, which is the main thing.
It all adds up to a winsome cinematic experience, even if Thor isn’t quite up to the best that Marvel Studios have offered so far. In many ways this is such old-fashioned filmmaking strong characters, excellent cast, clear stakes, snappy action it would almost be humdrum if such attributes weren’t so hard to find these days. Yes, Thor’s is in 3D, but don’t let that stop you this is another engaging entry into the cinematic side of the Marvel universe.
I say:
This isn’t a work of genius, but Thor’s almost old-fashioned nature lends plenty of dramatic guts to what is essentially a big footed action film.
See it for:
A great cast and some dazzling production design.
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