Countdown To Avengers: Thor

Spoilers

Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Written by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz and Don Payne

Cast
Chris Hemsworth as Thor
Natalie Portman as Jane Foster
Tom Hiddleston as Loki
Anthony Hopkins as Odin
Stellan Skarsgard as Erik Selvig
Rene Russo as Frigga
Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis
Idris Elba as Heimdall
Colm Feore as Laufey
Ray Stevenson as Volstagg
Tadanobu Asano as Hogun
Joshua Dallas as Fandral
Jaimie Alexander as Sif
Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
Adriana Barraza as Isabel Alvarez
Maximiliano Hernandes as Jasper Sitwell
Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye (cameo)
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (post-credit cameo)

Thor is the movie that represented Marvel Studios' first major risk when it came to making movies of their properties. Whereas both Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk were well-known, and had the classic comic book storylines of superheroes and scientific experiments gone wrong, this dealt with the pantheon of Norse Gods, with magic taking precedence over science for the first time. The characters are so well known from Norse mythology, that most people didn't even know that they were also characters in Marvel Comics until the movie came out. And let me tell you, if you're familiar with the mythology, good old-fashioned comic book family entertainment would not be your first thought when you hear the title.

As an example, that eight-legged horse that Odin rides during one scene of the movie? He's called Sleipnir. The Gods had asked a builder to build a fortification in three seasons, but warned him that if he didn't finish in time he wouldn't be paid. There was a little while left to go, and the builder was still on schedule, so the Gods sent Loki to delay him so they wouldn't have to pay. Loki had noticed that the builder was using a horse to help him, so turned into a female horse to lure it away. He thought that he was faster than the horse, but was wrong. Loki ended up getting raped by this horse, and a little while later, he gave birth to Sleipnir. Let's see them put that into a 12A (PG13 in America) movie.

Loki is also responsible for the death of his brother Baldur by convincing mistletoe to not swear an oath to not harm his brother. How the mistletoe had a say in the matter, you shouldn't ask... but you can probably tell by now, Loki is not to be trusted! There's a reason he ended up getting chained down in the underworld with snake venom being dripped into his eyes until Ragnarok (that's the apocalypse... so, a very long time). How the characters in the comics and movie didn't realise that he's not to be trusted a long time ago, is also not something you should ask.

Anyway, the movie whilst a divertingly entertaining couple of hours suffers from all of the best moments happening in the first half an hour. When Thor, Loki, and their friends Volstagg, Fandral, Hogun and Sif travel to Jodunheim to do battle with the Ice Giants it looks like you're going to be treated to one of the most epic movies to have been released in the last few years. But then Odin loses his temper, and the writers make the baffling decision to depower Thor for the majority of the rest of the movie, and strand him on Earth (or Midgard, as they should have been calling it). So what you get instead of the movie that you're promised is a fish-out-of-water comedy. Yes, most of this film seems to have more in common with the Eddie Murphy movie Coming To America than an actual superhero movie.

You get a lot of scenes of intrigue in Asgard, as Loki begins his plot to take over, which is why he manipulated events to get Thor banished in the first place (See? Not to be trusted). These scenes are the best in the remainder of the movie, with Tom Hiddleston doing a brilliant job of playing the villainous trickster God. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Kat Dennings is largely unecessary and Natalie Portman's Jane Foster seems to have literally nothing to do but look smitten for 90 minutes. I haven't seen such a waste of an Oscar winning actress for quite some time. Fortunately, we also have Stellan Skarsgard as Erik Selvig, and the Clark Gregg returning as Phil Coulson - always a pleasure to watch - gets significantly more time in the spotlight than in the Iron Man movies. As for Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth proves very capable of being able to carry the movie but - as with the rest of the cast that I've yet to mention - suffers from the material being severely lacking.

There are two more major action scenes, involving a fight with the giant Destroyer, and the final battle between a re-powered Thor and Loki, but both of them are pretty underwhelming. Nothing matches the promise that that first action scene had. What you get is an interesting and entertaining that could have been, and should have been so much more. It's still fun to watch, but by far my least favourite of the movies in the series.

As we get nearer to The Avengers, more little bits are thrown in to whet our appetites. As well as the presence of Phil Coulson and S.H.I.E.L.D., Thor marks the debut of Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) in a cameo appearance. There are also little nods to both Iron Man ("Is that one of Stark's?"), and the Hulk (Selvig's story of a pioneer in Gamma Radiation going missing when S.H.I.E.L.D. took an interest in him). Oh, and in a blink and you miss it scene at the beginning of The Incredible Hulk there is a weather report showing freak storms in New Mexico which turns out to be caused by the Thor and Mjolnir appearing on Earth via the Bifrost (why the Bifrost would point to New Mexico and not, say, Norway, I don't know). They're also the problems that Nick Fury talks about during Iron Man 2. Talking of Nick Fury, he shows up again in a post-credit cameo, this time showing Erik Selvig a piece of technology that could help in his research... a glowing cube which you may recall seeing a sketch of in Iron Man 2, in Howard Stark's notebook regarding arc reactor technology. Looks like Asgardian technology is responsible for every scientific breakthrough in these movies. Unfortunately, it appears that Selvig is being controlled by a still alive and well Loki. "To Be Continued" is an apt phrase, I think.