Thor

When I saw Thor in theaters last year, I thought the movie was okay, but I found the love story to be a bit unrealistic.  I'm not sure what frame of mind I was in the first time around, but that didn't bother me upon re-watching the film.  As a matter of fact, I was so impressed with other aspects of the movie that the romance aspect was fine.

I said earlier in the week that the Hulk is a difficult character to make believable because my brain refuses to accept a green CG creature running amok and causing explosions.  I still believe the Hulk is hard to accept visually, but Thor is definitely the hardest character to accept when you are considering story.  How often can they make aliens worshiped as gods work?  When re-watching Thor, I was mainly struck by the absurdity of the plot, but I still enjoyed the movie.  The Asgard scenes are full of shine and rainbows, but it works in the context of the film.

It helps that Thor is populated by solid actors.  It seems I have this same paragraph in each Marvel review, where I talk about how strong the casting is.  It's not my fault they've got it together in this arena.  For example, I wouldn't have chosen Sir Anthony Hopkins to play Odin, but if Sir Anthony Hopkins is down for acting in your comic book hero movie, you let him act in your comic book hero movie.  It's a no brainer, and he is wonderful in the role.  I imagine when you have Kenneth Branagh directing, you get a certain quality of performer.  Natalie Portman is a joy to watch, and while this was my first outting with Tom Hiddleston, I would love to see more of his work based on his performance here.

While the background for Thor is fantastical, the story is one most people can relate to in some way.  You're basically watching two brothers vie for affection and come to grips with who they truly are.  Take away the hammers, bridges, and frost giants, and you have a family drama.  Hiddleston's performance lets you feel Loki's pain, and that makes the film much more interesting.

With realistic performances and good casting, Thor has a lot going on for it.  While the Asgard scenes are hard to accept at times due to the shiny perfection, they are proper representations.  The costuming is handled well, as are the special effects and make-up.  I'm particularly impressed by the make-up for the frost giants.  Really tall blue guys with red eyes hanging around?  Sure, I buy that.  Why?  Because the chatty scenes are not CG.  If Laufey is talking, it's an actor painted blue.  Obviously, I'm simplifying, but you get the idea.  CG is most likely used to enhance Laufey's appearance, but their base is a real human face.

I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed Thor on my second viewing.  For some reason, the only thing I really remember from the initial showing was the unrealistic love story.  It just seemed that the two of them fell way too much in love in way too short a span of time.  It just didn't seem that outlandish this time around.  I'm happy to report that you should give Thor a chance if you haven't already.  I actually spoke with a young man that was going to the midnight showing of the Avengers but hadn't seen Thor yet.  That's really a shame.