[REVIEW] Thor

Randy and I went and saw Thor on the weekend in 3D (not my choice - it was the only thing available at the Camrose theatre). I didn't write down my thoughts right after, so I may not remember a lot about it, but I'm gonna do my best.

Going into the movie, I knew next to nothing about Thor. I knew the he is the Norse Thunder God, and that his father is Odin. That's about it. I knew nothing about the "super hero" version of him. I knew nothing about the movie - other than the fact that it looked good, Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard and Kat Dennings were in it and that Kenneth Branagh was directing it. I didn't even realize that Anthony Hopkins was playing Odin.

I was generally very satisfied with the film. Asgard was absolutely beautiful - the animators and designers did such a wonderful job with it - Jötunheim (I had to look up how to spell that) made me feel cold just looking at it, and earth...well, it was earth, wasn't it? Nothing special about it, it looked like your every day town, except for where Mjollnir (had to look that one up too) landed. Which, I think, is also perfect.

The costumes, props, etc. I think were also all very beautiful and fitting for the sets. The Frost Giants were especially cool. They seemed to me to be almost made of solid blue rock, which made their red eyes especially creepy.

From a directing side, I was a bit worried about Kenneth Branagh directing an action flick, but it was needless. I loved his vision, the only thing that I was a little "meh" on, was the 3D. The film was directed as a 3D film, it was directed as a 2D film. There was nothing in it that made the 3D spectacular, or even needed. The 3D did nothing but take away from the film. It made the fight scenes, which would have been epic without the 3D seem like nothing spectacular because when I go see a 3D film, I want things flying at me. Whether it be blood, or weapons, or pineapples, I don't care as long as something gets thrown towards me. Or, if that doesn't happen, I want to be able to feel like I could step into the world. I want to feel like if I walk towards the screen, I should be able to peek around the edge of it into the world. I didn't feel that either. But that's not uncommon. One of the only films that I've seen in 3D that utilized it really well was Avatar.

As a rule, I thought the actors - especially Stellan Skarsgard (who is one of my favourite actors ever) and Anthony Hopkins - did a good job with their characters. The only two I really didn't like were Natalie Portman and Kat Dennings. Natalie Portman's portrayal of the character seemed very stock, but at the same time over exaggerated. Nothing was really that interesting about her portrayal of her - and maybe that was just the character itself, but she seemed like she tried to make it more interesting by over playing everything a little too much. I was really surprised at how much I disliked Kat Dennings in this role - I loved her as Nora in Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, but every time she opened her mouth I wanted something to hit her over the head. I wanted the Destroyer to fry her. I have a feeling that maybe she was cast for a larger role and they had to cut a lot of her scenes, so that could have a lot to do with it, but still. I shouldn't want one of the "good guys" to explode into a ball of flames every time they speak.

But all in all, it was an enjoyable film. It was beautifully shot, I loved the magic/science, and let's face it, Thor being shirtless was a definite bonus in this one.