BEEFY & CHEESY & FUN ENOUGH

Thor, at the end of the day, is Masters of the Universe with a much bigger budget.  I’m kidding…it’s certainly better than Gary Goddard’s camp classic…but it never achieves the heights of the genre’s best efforts (The Dark Knight, Dick Donner’s original Superman, Dick Donner’s director’s cut of Superman II, Spiderman 2, and Tim Burton’s Batman Returns).  Part of that is because Thor, as a character, is sort of hammy and cheesy (in an entertaining way), and the film, which was written by a slew of contributors and directed rather ham-fistedly by Shakespeare specialist Kenneth Branagh, feels like it’s reaching for the kiddie seats more often than not.  It’s also rather funny to see how the creators of He-Man shameless ripped off Thor for their character inspiration.    I had fun watching the film, you won’t feel burned if you pay full price, but do yourself a favor and see it in 2-D (some of the film is so darkly lit that I can’t even imagine how shitty it will look in 3-D…) and remember that the film has been designed to appeal best to youngsters.  I like how the Marvel creative team are linking up their films in an effort to lead up to next summer’s The Avengers, so all of the stuff with SHIELD and other superhero characters making cameos feels cool and part of a “larger plan.”  I just wish I had cared a bit more about Thor as a standalone movie.  The film has a disjointed narrative due to frequent cutting between Thor’s planet of Asgard (some sort of hallucinogenic disco party with a strange rainbow bridge) and a dusty New Mexico town that’s clearly been built to explode where he’s banished after his dad gets pissed at him for starting some shit with some mean ice-giants.  His no-good brother Loki is your standard issue second son with jealousy issues who decides to take matters into his own hands.  There are some decent action scenes, the CGI alternates between weak and impressive, and it gets funny how many Dutch angles Branagh and his cinematographer managed to fit in.  But easily, the best part of the film is Chris Hemsworth as the title character.  Brawny, beefy, funny, and totally into his part, he’ll be a perfect match alongside Robert Downey Jr. as Ironman, and (I presume) Chris Evans as Captain America.  And let’s not forget Mark Ruffalo as Hulk/Banner and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye.  Joss Whedon certainly has a dream cast…next summer should be VERY interesting…