REVIEW: Thor

Dir.: Kenneth Branagh

With: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins.

Ok, people, don’t judge.

I had an exam earlier today and, having felt like I just gave a mental birth to an ugly and underdeveloped German baby, I needed some distraction in my life. Something big, loud and unassuming. Enter “Thor”, the latest superhero adaptation by Kenneth Branagh, the respected Shakespearean actor and a very surprising choice to direct such an opus.

The demographic at this early show was quite telling – mainly teenage boys but there was also an Adidas-clad middle-aged man who, for some reason, decided to sit next to me. The entire duration of the film he was either scratching his shaved head or his balls. You have no idea of the amount of effort it took me not to laugh out loud when he was going through the motions for the umpteenth time. If he is reading this by any weird chance – I sincerely apologise for mocking you, I am sure you are a lovely man, and it was pretty comfy sharing the armrest with you.

Anyhow. Although I thought that Kenneth Branagh might bring some weird Shakespearean dimension to the film, my expectations were so low, that only a fly would have tripped over them. Also, the trailer wasn’t exactly promising. So, although it might have been my post-exam condition, I was very pleasantly surprised! As far as super-hero films go, this is definitely a good one! Probably, even comparable to the first “Iron Man”. It was entertaining, the story was unusual and coherent, but most importantly, the casting was extremely successful.

Chris Hemsworth, an unknown Australian actor, proved that he has enough talent and charisma to carry off a major blockbuster on his shoulders. His comedic timing was pretty good too – there is a lot of comedy going on during Thor’s adaptation period on Earth. Natalie Portman was the usual pretty and charming self. Anthony Hopkins was Anthony Hopkins. However, it is the little known Tom Hiddleston, or Thor’s treacherous brother Loki, who wins the award in my opinion. He was absolutely great as the mischievous but essentially tragic hero of the story. I'll be most definitely looking out for him in the future. Apart from this, the rest of the cast were solid too – Idris Elba from “The Wire”, Jeremy Renner from “Hurt Locker” and even Stellan Skarsgard.

Visually it was very rich. Apart from the many beautiful starry space-scapes,  Asgard, the realm of the gods, was also impressive. It was quite obvious that the LOTR trilogy has left a major mark for the future set designers of epic fantasies. The Earth looked appropriately modest in comparison.

Another surprise was the ending of the film – you don’t get many woots-woots for the main hero here, instead it was rather sad and solemn.

Conclusion – if you like good superhero flicks, Nordic mythology, teenage boys and general good fun, go see this, you’ll be definitely entertained! I shan’t post the trailer here, it is a very poor representation of what lies in store.