Thor is a Hammer Throwing Good Time!

I just got back from my midnight showing of Thor, and wanted to get my initial reactions down before they are lost in a sleepy haze. Just as a heads up, this review is pretty much spoiler-free. Saw it in digital IMAX 3D (not by choice), which I honestly feel takes away from the movie quite a bit as it wasn't used to any great effect & made many of the action and tracking shots blurry. The DLP projected picture came out visibly pixelated, which was only exacerbated by the mediocre 3D effects. If you really want to see this movie in its full glory, go check it out in 2D.


Let me preface this with the following: Thor is no Iron Man, but it comes pretty close. 


I thought Thor was very solid film and a great deal of fun to watch, although it was, in my opinion, the least approachable of the Marvel movies thus far. Most of the earlier Marvel films do a really nice job of holding your hand and explaining every little facet of what's going on so that the casual movie-goer can come in, plunk down their ten bucks, and leave with summer blockbuster jitters. Thor takes a different tack. 


Thor is very thick with references and easter eggs, but fairly thin on explanation. I feel that they made this film with the expectation that the people watching are already familiar with the universe and the players involved, so do not waste much time on introduction. With Thor being a bit less mainstream of a character for your average fan though, Branagh could have spent a bit more time on helping the viewer understand the world and the cast of supporting characters better. He did a wonderful job, however, in making this movie and the subject matter truly feel epic. The set pieces are appropriately out of this world. Whosoever designed Asgard is worthy of wielding Mjolnir, indeed!


The action is great & it has some great comedic moments as well, without making the movie feel campy or goofy. Chris Hemsworth made a great Thor, with a fantastic mix of equal parts confusion, arrogance, bravado and dashing bluster. He also does hell of a job filling out the armor. Anthony Hopkins was awesome as Odin, but that nearly goes without saying, as this role is right up his alley. I truly enjoyed the hell out of the subtlety of Tom Hiddleston's performance as Loki, and am greatly looking forward to his role as the big, bad villain in The Avengers. Natalie Portman as Jane Foster had some of the best lines and reactions in the movie though. Definitely a good step in the right direction for making up for the Star Wars prequels. LOL


I don't want to ruin/spoil anything but let me just say right now that the fight with the Destroyer was AWESOME! You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it.


Personally, I think Thor is a great watch and definitely recommend checking it out in the theater, but I'm looking forward to seeing if there's a director's cut release when it comes out on Blu-ray with some more footage.