Thor Review

                                                         2 1/2 Nuts

Director: Kenneth Branagh

There seems to be a good deal of super hero movies coming out this summer and to start it off we have Thor.  He is a god by day and I guess a god by night as well.  Thor takes place in two worlds, one being our own planet Earth and the other Asgard, a planet in a different realm where Thor resides. Unlike most super hero movies where the protagonist gains his powers through an origin story, Thor already has all of his powers from the onset. 

The film focuses around Thor played by Chris Hemsworth who is soon to replace his father as king of Asgard.  Unfortunately his arrogance gets him cast out of Asgard by his father Oden played by Anthony Hopkins.  He is sent to earth until he learns to change his ways. There he meets up with a group of scientist, the primary one being Jane Foster played by Natalie Portman.  Together they try and find a way to get Thor back to Asgard in time to save his planet from destruction.      

The plot isn’t incredibly intriguing but the action scenes are terrific.  Unfortunately the best action scene in the movie is at the very beginning and the film never seems to attain that level of excitement for the remainder. Although a lot of the action scenes take place in the realm of Asgard, there are still the occasional ones on Earth.  The ones at Asgard look significantly better because these mythical creatures look more believable when they are on a planet as mythical as themselves. The battle scenes on Earth at times look rather silly, simply because Earth and Asgard are such radically different locations.

The movie delivered more laughs than I had anticipated it would.  In the second act, Thor is on planet Earth however he behaves and talks in a way that would come out of a Shakespearen play.   In one scene Thor is sitting in a coffee shop and throws his coffee cup on the floor and demands another.  He is so clearly not from this planet, his actions become very funny. 

Although this isn’t the best super hero movie out there, I couldn’t see any other director doing a better job with this specific super hero’s story.  To make this outrageous concept work on film could not have been an easy task, however the end product is surprisingly well done.

In a peaNut Shell:  Between some very solid action sequences and a decent amount of laughs, Thor proves to be rather enjoyable.  The 2^nd act feels slow at parts but picks up again toward the end.  It may not be the best super hero movie out there but it is far from the worst.