I Wanna Be Your Sledgehammer (A Thor review)

Two more days until the UK release of Avengers Assemble, meaning there are two more Marvel Cinematic Universe films to look at. We've already looked at Iron Man and its sequel, plus The Incredible Hulk, so let's press on with the fourth film in the inventory.

Poster by Olly Moss.

Marvel faced an interesting challenge with the last two films before Avengers; how can we get Thor and Captain America on the silver screen without them looking silly? Of all the superheroes to adapt to film, they had to sell a guy in LARPer gear who spoke in Shakespearian prose and swung around a magic hammer, and a soldier in propagandistic American garb with little wings on the side of his head, to audiences across the world without getting laughed out the door. Thor was also high fantasy, a genre that has never really done well critically or commercially. For every Conan or Lord of the Rings that managed to strike a chord with audiences, you had an Eragon, a Dungeons and Dragons, and several dozen Krulls or Hawk the Slayers that bombed HARD.

At the time of its release, however, Marvel once again had good fortune. Prior to Thor's release, HBO had begun airing its epic medieval fantasy saga Game of Thrones, which pushed the original book's political intrigue and scheming amoral characters to the surface, and was picking up enough praise that fantasy looked like it would have a second chance of popularity. Thor itself sweetens the pill somewhat by putting a more sci-fi bent on it - the Norse gods are in fact an alien culture whose frequent visits to Earth resulted in worship from the locals - and setting a good deal of the film in contemporary America, but it still traffics in fantasy tropes, and it still grossed nearly $450m at the international box office. What with Game of Thrones  currently storming the ratings, maybe medieval fantasy's getting a second wind in pop culture.

Thor managed to rise to the challenge well enough, but does it still hold up on a second viewing? If ye be worthy, we're reviewing the Viking god of thunder's cinematic début after the jump.

Asgard is one of the Nine Realms of the cosmos, home to a race of proud warriors known as the Asgardians - and who, centuries ago, were worshipped as gods by the people of Earth. Odin (Anthony Hopkins), King of Asgard, prepares to pass on the throne to his son Thor (Chris Hemsworth), but the ceremony is interrupted by a pair of Frost Giants attempting to steal from Odin's treasure room. Angered, Thor travels to Jotunheim, the realm of the Frost Giants, to seek retribution, breaking a truce between Jotunheim and Asgard in the process. For his arrogance, Thor is stripped of his powers and banished to Earth...where he nearly gets run over by young astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). Thor now has to retrieve his powers in the form of the weather-controlling hammer Mjolnir, now under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s protection, but things take a turn when his ambitious brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) assumes the throne of Asgard.

Continuing the Marvel Studios tradition of picking unlikely candidates to direct superhero films, Thor is helmed by Kenneth Branagh. Yes, that Kenneth Branagh. Most of you probably know him better as Gilderoy Lockhart from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, but Branagh has received massive acclaim for his adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, especially his glorious unabridged cut of Hamlet, running  at four hours and possessing the cast that dreams are made of - Kate Winslet, John Gielgud, BRIAN BLESSED, Charlton Heston, Judi Dench and Sir Richard Attenborough amongst them. Thor in the comics has traditionally spoken in pseudo-Shakespearian prose, if not actual iambic pentameter, so in that sense, Branagh is an inspired choice.

Like Jon Favreau on Iron Man, Branagh is an actor's director, again to the film's benefit. Thor is more grandiose than any of the Marvel films so far. The fantastical nature of the piece helps, featuring warring gods quarrelling in magnificent golden palaces, but the story and themes explored are part and parcel as well. Like Iron Man, it features a protagonist punished for his ego, but here it's more of a morality tale; Thor is still incredibly tough without Mjolnir, but needs to become more humble, more benevolent. Loki's story, meanwhile, is more tragic; he finds out his entire heritage has been a lie, and assumes the throne more or less by accident. He's still a villain, considering he lies, tricks and plots destruction, but he's very sympathetic and conflicted.

"Fair maiden, holdeth mine belongings!"

There were worries from the nerd community about the script taking the "Hercules in New York" approach to fantasy films; for those of you who are confused, Hercules in New York was Arnold Schwarzenegger's hilariously bad début film and stars a heavily accented Governator as Hercules wandering around New York beating people up. It does this because the film's budget didn't stretch to depicting a faithful Mount Olympus, a demonstration of Hercules' godlike strength or...anything, really, aside from Schwarzenegger wrecking people's shit. It's often the sign of a bad fantasy film when most of the film is set in modern Earth to save on costumes and set design, and this happened a fair bit during the late 80s/early 90s: see also Masters of the Universe and Beastmaster II: Through the Portal of Time, but only if you badly need a laugh.

Thor gets a pass because this pretty much duplicates his origin from the comics, and because it's clearly not a budget concern; at $150m, it shouldn't have any budget concerns. That said, plotwise, there's not a lot going on: Thor gets sent to Earth, fails to pick up hammer, gets humbled after bad news, chooses to stay on Earth until duty calls. It's not bad, but it is light from a narrative point of view. The romance between Thor and Jane also feels perfunctory. Don't get me wrong, Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman have great chemistry together and are charming leads, but their relationship also feels a bit...sudden, I guess. I won't complain too much, because the characters help buoy this along; great characters can make up for weak stories, after all.

Branagh is nothing if not passionate about the films he makes, sometimes to his disadvantage (see his OTT version of Frankenstein), but for something larger-than-life like Thor, it works really well. Asgard looks gorgeous, a perfect mixture between high medieval fantasy and a 50's/60's-esque vision of how we imagined the future to look like. The idea of gods simply being highly-evolved aliens is one explored a lot by Jack Kirby, co-creator and the original artist of Thor, and it's replicated amazingly well; the Asgardians look simultaneously godlike and futuristic. Hemsworth makes for a confident, charismatic Thor, and does well both amongst his fellow warriors (you do get the impression he, Sif and the Warriors Three are comrades and blood brothers) and as a fish-out-of-water on Earth, whether he "politely" asks for more coffee by throwing the empty mug to the floor, or when he walks into a pet shop demanding a horse or anything "large enough to ride!"

Thou art observing the throne. Abstain from letting me into my zone.

Tom Hiddleston's been singled out for a lot of praise here, and for good reason. Loki is the first truly sympathetic villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far - he's a trickster, certainly, and thinks nothing of lying and falsehood to ensure he keeps himself on Asgard's throne, but he does seem to genuinely care about Thor and Asgard's wellbeing. Loki comes to Earth briefly to tell Thor that Odin has passed on, and you get a sense of regret on Loki's part. His anger at learning his true heritage is justified and brought across superbly by Hiddleston, who does genuinely seem on the verge of tears in the scene. The leads all went to considerable effort in preparation for their roles - Hemsworth bulked up so much he could barely fit into his costume, Portman read up on astrophysics and wormholes - but Hiddleston not only slimmed down, to give Loki a "lean and hungry look", he also studied capoeira to get a better idea of the character's physicality. Hiddleston recently wrote an impassioned defence of superheroes for The Guardian; he seems to truly love this project.

The supporting cast all do well, and fit their intended roles. Portman's Jane Foster is charming and likeable and sounds credible when rattling off scientific jargon; Portman is a Harvard graduate and something of a science nut, after all. Anthony Hopkins is stern and statesmanlike as Odin, and seems to be enjoying the chance to ham it up; respected actor he may be, he does love taking on big silly roles as well, as seen in The Wolfman and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Stellan Skarsgård is the anchor to the film's Norse ties and provides both gravitas and comic relief when needed, and Idris Elba - in the minor role of Heimdall - almost steals the scenes with the little material he's given just through his delivery and stage presence. His casting did attract attention from Odin-worshipping racists, but a) I didn't see them complaining about Thor being blonde when traditionally he's had red hair; b) Branagh is no stranger to colour-blind casting, having Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves play brothers in Much Ado About Nothing (and to great effect, as Washington was awesome in that film); and c) we could all benefit from having Stringer Bell in more films.

"Anyone want to complain about my performance? No? DIDN'T THINK SO."

The action is nothing really remarkable; there's not much traditional fight choreography, just combatants exchanging blows more powerful than the last with the other party getting curb-stomped, especially when Thor, Sif and the Warriors Three do battle with the Destroyer. The final battle between Thor and Loki is a bit off as well; great actor though he is, Hiddleston just does not look comfortable fighting with an eight-foot spear. Still, they're grand enough that this is more a minor misstep, and contributes to the film's intended mood. Branagh embraces the grandiose and the ridiculous; the whole concept is inherently big and silly, one that Thor doesn't shy away from. And it's so much the better for it. Fantasy films, be they medieval or sci-fi, are more at risk of losing audiences with their world-building, but Thor avoids this pitfall by anchoring the story in solid characters and great performances.

OK, now to talk about the teasing for Avengers. S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Coulson show up as they are want to do, and fit neatly enough into the plot. One thing that's a bit confusing is Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), making an appearance here. During Thor's siege on Mjolnir's landing site, Barton grabs a compound bow, gets lifted up on a platform, and spends the scene...just aiming at the guy. He gets in some wonderfully dry quips ("Do you want me to take him down or would you rather send in more guys for him to beat up?"), but he just proves superfluous. At least Black Widow did things in Iron Man 2; Hawkeye just stands on a platform for five minutes without loosing an arrow. The stinger shows Skarsgård's character meeting with Nick Fury and being shown the Cosmic Cube. This plays a big role in Captain America, but I'm not sure if they'll reuse that for Avengers; as it is, it feels more like teasing for the next "Road to Avengers" film, and not particularly exciting either.

Ah well. Thor's great enough that this doesn't really matter.