Thor

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am an unabashed comics geek. I can remember looking at my first comic back in the early '80s, it was a Spider-Man book, and although I don't recall the story in the pages, or really even remember what the cover looked like, it kicked off what has been a passion since then. Often featuring smart stories surrounded by gorgeous artwork, comics have had a long, hard road to the current mainstream success they are enjoying across all forms of media: the original printed versions, movie and video game adaptations, television shows, you can even read old back issues and classics on the web without having to shell out hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars just to peek inside the cover. Recently, comics publishing giant Marvel Comics was acquired by the even bigger Disney family, allowing them to re-acquire all the rights to their characters they had previously licensed to other film companies. The result of this has been the creation of The Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which characters from their own films cross-over and appear in other characters stories, interweaving them into a grand story-telling tapestry, much like the printed versions do. The first major project has been the assembling of "The Avengers", a super-hero team rich with history from the pages that features some of Marvel's biggest names. Thus far, films have been produced featuring team members such as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and, very recently, Captain America, with other characters popping up in those films to tie them more neatly together, most notably Samuel L. Jackson as Sgt. Nick Fury, leader of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Scarlett Johansson as The Black Widow. The character getting his big screen turn this time is Thor, The God of Thunder.

Like every other super-hero film, we have to get the "origin story" out of the way, which is how we learn where the hero comes from, where he gets his power and so forth. Thor was born into power, the son of Odin, and future king of Asgard, a mystical world in a parallel universe to our own. Sitting on the side-lines is Loki, Thor's brother, who also has his sights on the kingship and is quite the trickster. We flash forward to when the boys are now adults and a ceremony is taking place where Odin (Anthony Hopkins) is apparently about to pass the kingship to Thor (Chris Hemsworth), but is interrupted mid-announcement by an invasion of Frost Giants, bitter enemies of the Asgardians that were thwarted by Odin many years previous. Although the Giants are quickly defeated, Thor takes this as an act of war and tries to convince his father to march on the Giants. Odin tells him to stand down, which he initially obeys, until goaded into action by Loki (Tom Huddleston). Thor and his compatriots, The Warriors Three, travel to the Frost Giant's home-world of Jotunheim, along with Loki and Thor's childhood friend Sif, to confront their king, Laufey (Colm Feore). A battle ensues, and with Thor and company facing certain doom, Odin intervenes and transports them back to Asgard, in effect quashing the treaty he had forged with them centuries before. Once back, Odin banishes Thor to Earth, stripping him of his power and his mystical hammer, Mjolnir, for his arrogance and disobedience. Odin sends the hammer to Earth after Thor, with an enchantment that only the worthy may wield the hammer.

Not pictured: Mjolnir, but still a pretty bad-ass hammer.

Once on Earth, Thor meets up with astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), and attempts to get his hammer back. During this sequence we get our first peek at one of The Avengers, Hawkeye, but only recognizable to true comics fans. Thor tries to retrieve his hammer, but is still unworthy of wielding it, as per his father's enchantment. He is captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., but is quickly sprung by Foster and her colleagues.
Meanwhile, things are going on back at Asgard, and that's where things get heavy, and I stop talking about them to not reveal too much more of the plot. All I can say about it is they aren't big twists that you don't see coming, especially if you have any knowledge of the characters in the first place. It's pretty easy to tell who the good guys and bad guys are early on, no mystery there.

Seriously? No twist?

Being that this is a piece of a grander project, I see where it fits in the scheme of things. I thought that it felt a bit hurried as opposed to other origin pictures, it seemed to me that Thor's redemption should have taken longer, but it doesn't kill the movie. I also felt the 3-D wasn't totally necessary, it made a few things pop vibrantly, but wasn't as stunning as my last 3-D experience. Overall it was a faithful adaptation of the Marvel character, although I don't remember Thor having the whole beard thing for the better part of his comics career, but that's just a small detail. The costuming for all the characters was beautiful, I especially liked Loki's look, being that I thought he had one of the ugliest costumes in comics history. I would have liked the film itself to have been a bit longer, but it was entertaining, nonetheless. Now I kind of want to see Captain America on the big screen, something I previously wasn't even considering.

6 out of 10 Fists.