Friday, May 6, 2011

Review: Thor


Title: Thor
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writer(s): Ashley Miller (screenplay), Zack Stentz (screenplay)
Staring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård
MPAA Rating: PG -13
Running Time: 114 min
Synopsis: The powerful but arrogant warrior Thor is cast out of the fantastic realm of Asgard and sent to live amongst humans on Earth, where he soon becomes one of their finest defenders.
What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 83% (Fresh), Top Critics: 73% (Fresh), Audience: 95% (Want to See It)
Metacritic: Critics: 58 out of 100, Users: NA out of 10 (No votes yet)
MRQE Metric: 67 out of 100
Yahoo Movies: Critics: No Rating At This Time Users: A-

My Review

Source Material: Based off Marvel comic book with the same name.

Entertaining Value:
  • Action Elements: I saw a good amount of entertaining fights. Most of them where on a "epic" level while some fell short. But over all the action in the film was good.
  • Comedy Elements: Humor is one of the stronger aspects of this film. I think when it comes to comic book movies there need to be a good amount of humor so it grounds the characters it into our reality. This film did a good job of doing just that. A feat that was harder because it a story of "gods" duking it out for the fate of man.
  • Dramatic Elements: I think there was a good amount of superficial drama, or lack of a better word some love dove scene that didn't work for me. Don't get me wrong the actors did fantastic but love is deeper than admiration of the male physique.
  • Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: A lot of farfetched ideas but believable. This movie is based off a comic book. This comic book drew inspiration from Norse Mythology using many characteristics of their deities to from a superhero in this case the god of thunder, Thor.
Cinematic Value:
  • Acting and Dialogue: B+: Most of the actors in this film where fairly new to the sliver screen. If you remember the open scene of Star Trek (2009) then you may recall seeing Chris Hemsworth (Thor) portraying George Kirk, Capitan Kirks father. Tom Hiddleston (Loki) comes from television. Stellan Skarsgård was in the Pirates movie as Bootstrap Bill. I believe that these actors captured the heart of these characters and did a very good job portraying them. I also enjoy seeing some damn good actors in there as well. Do I have to mention, Anthony Hopkins, its pretty much a given.
  • Art Direction: B+: I like the costume design the most. It felt real and not the campy spandex that is given to us in the comic book, witch is fantastic. I saw a good correlation to color scheme between the civilization clothing and the armor. I think the rendering of Asgard was cool and a bit awe aspiring
  • Cinematography: B: I'm glad the most of fight scene weren't Micheal Bay-ish, meaning it was easy to follow, good work camera men.
  • Direction: B: The film had a decent pace. The scene that took place in Asgard where good but lasted maybe a bit to long but then again I feel like the end was here by no time. But I will bring up that the pace of the movie was fantastic for a summer blockbuster.
  • Editing: B+: I liked the back and forth aspect of the movie.
  • Screenplay: B+: Not being a avid comic book reader I don't have a fully understanding if this film lined up well with the basic story of Thor from the comic. As far as a good story it was good, good conflict, great antagonist, good character development.
  • Sound and Music: B: I enjoyed it. It was simple but I think it works.
  • VFX: B: The environments and sci-fi elements had good VFX, Asgard turned out fantastic in my opinion. It may not be Oscar worthy but I think they filmmakers did a good job.
Overall: B+: I believe you should give this film a shot. It may not satisfy your needs of being an awesome aesthetically pleasing art piece but its one "epic" movie and quite entertaining. I understand going to a movie isn't economy friendly with gas, ticket, and concession price being ridiculously high, but I think you should take the gamble and enjoy yourself for at least. I guess we will see how this compares to the other comic book movies coming out this summer, Thor was a good start to my summer movie season.