Australia's Best Movie Magazine

Film reviews

Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

search the site

Enter search term:

newsletter

Enter your email address below to receive the weekly Filmink newsletter

Enter search term:

Thor (Film)

by Erin Free | April 18, 2011 15:13 | Edited April 18, 2011 15:14

It’s big, grand and visually impressive but Kenneth Branagh’s savvy direction ensures this engaging superhero flick always remains rooted in its characters.

In their continuing march towards the superhero team-up movie The Avengers - perhaps the most highly anticipated comic adaptation in cinema history - Paramount and Marvel Studios have proven once again that they've got the page-to-screen formula tabulated perfectly. The Iron Man films and The Incredible Hulk (both characters will ultimately appear in The Avengers) were both strongly characterised, well performed, and highly entertaining, and now Thor - despite being radically different in its superhero mythology - follows suit. Thanks to the commitment and keen intelligence of director Kenneth Branagh (a decidedly risky choice that pays off huge dividends), this potentially unwieldy collision of Norse mythology, science fiction, romance, action, and shady espionage (imported directly from Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk in the form of the shadowy government agency S.H.I.E.L.D), actually throws up wonderful sparks instead of the celluloid wreckage that it could have if placed in lesser directorial hands.

 

In the film's set-up (which differs somewhat from the many variations of the long-running Thor comics character), Asgard is a mystical realm whose warriors' occasional earthly visitations have influenced Norse mythology. In the present day, Asgard's king, the ageing Odin (Sir Anthony Hopkins, thankfully reining it in with a magisterial but sympathetic performance), casts out his son, the arrogant warrior, Thor (Australian actor Chris Hemsworth - alternately charming, tough, noble and funny - is nothing short of a casting masterstroke), for bringing about war with their enemies, The Frost Giants. Hurtled to Earth, Thor must learn humility, and this hard man slowly starts to soften under the influence of young scientist, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman, proving that a fine actress can indeed make a thinly written character into something warm, engaging and believable), and her colleagues (Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgard). But when the war of Asgard threatens to come to Earth, The Mighty Thor springs into action...

 

Whereas the flights of fancy of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and the upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger (the final piece in The Avengers team-up puzzle) come courtesy of science, Thor inhabits a far loftier realm, essentially dealing with the decidedly out-there subject of alien gods. Like all good directors, however, Branagh (Henry V, Hamlet) knows that even with fantastical material such as this, characters come first. Mining the kind of Shakespearean subject matter that comes naturally to him, this revered theatre director and regular cinematic interpreter of The Bard makes Thor a traditionally dramatic tale of fathers and sons, feuding siblings (British actor Tom Hiddleston is another casting masterstroke as Thor's brother, Loki), warring nations, and royal court intrigue. While obviously at home in the regal setting of Asgard, however, Branagh is just as comfortable with the film's more expected superhero tropes, delivering exciting action sequences and never allowing proceedings to degenerate into a mere special effects extravaganza.

 

The narrative links to The Avengers (there's a brief cameo from The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, another character who will appear in the team-up movie, while Samuel L. Jackson's recurring Nick Fury appears in a surprise post-credits sequence) are well placed, and never detract from what's happening in the film at hand. Branagh also plays up the film's fish-out-of-water humour to amusing effect, as the brawling Thor tries to acclimatise in the polite surrounds of Earth. The romantic subplot, meanwhile, is one of the film's highlights, with Hemsworth and Portman enjoying a warm chemistry that blooms straight out of their warm underplaying.

 

Though not one of Marvel's most famous characters (lacking the instant recognition factor of, say, Spider-Man or The Hulk), Branagh succeeds in making Thor accessible, coherent and engaging. He takes something that could have potentially been silly, and crafts it into a big, grand, visually impressive slab of superhero cinema. Thor aims high - and thanks to a superb cast and a savvy director - it gets there.