Movie Review: Thor

Thor feels more like a movie that has to be good rather than just being a good movie. With The Avengers movie looming in the near future Marvel Studios is doing its damnedest to do everything right. Thor is certainly not as enjoyable as films like Iron Man, but it could have been worse in my opinion. This wasn't going to be an easy adaptation from comic book to big screen and I think in that respect they pulled it off well. The Norse God of Thunder that wields a big hammer could have ended up looking stupid, but it surprisingly didn't. Well, not as stupid as I was expecting.

So the story has this Fabio-lookin' beefy blonde guy from another planet traveling on the rainbow road from Mario Kart to get to Earth after being banished by his father, an aging king. Thor is next in line to be king, but he's not mature enough and to prove it he starts a war with the bad guys from Care Bears leading eventually to his banishment. His father gets weak or ill or something and the cliché evil brother takes over and the story feels like Hamlet or The Lion King and up to this point it's not that bad of a movie and then BAM! Natalie Portman, the guy from Good Will Hunting, and Norah from Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist bump into Thor and hilarity ensues. In the vein of Hulk Hogan's Suburban Commando, Thor must learn the strange customs of humans and get acquainted with Earth.

I'm not sure if the film knew how silly it was being, or if the film makers were actually embracing the oddness of a hammer wielding ancient figure from space. I felt it was simultaneously undercutting the seriousness of the fantasy elements playing out in space while at least making the scenes down on Earth more enjoyable than an attention span deficit audience of today could otherwise handle. Without the humor, this lengthy advertisement bonanza would have been a lot more boring. There was a serious lack of interesting locations in the Earth scenes, and the ones out in space always looked too fakey and CG to enjoy. The characters were likable, but watching them eat Burger King on the roof wasn't exactly as exciting as seeing Tony Stark learning to fly for the first time or Peter Parker discovering his powers.

This film is a superb two-hour commercial for an upcoming movie (and a barrage of product placements, listed below.) Everyone in the theater stayed till after the credits to see the obvious "secret" clip at the end. We've been conditioned and primed for this. We are the products of Marvel Studios' brilliant synergistic scheme. Even to the extent that we expect Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury at the end of the film and are willing to sit through 7,000 names of people who created the CG effects to see it.

Really, I'm fine with it. I think what they're doing is brilliant. Be honest with yourself though, this film is not as good as you thought it was when you walked out of the theater, is it? I've seen some good reviews for this film and I feel like we've been tricked by the pretty 3D imagery and flashy advertising. This movie is about as good as (and feels like) Masters of the Universe from 1987. Take that as you will.