Matt's Thor Review

I freely admit to knowing next to nothing about Thor before seeing this movie.  Here’s what I did know: I knew it had a good cast, good director, and it looked fun.  My expectations were relatively low, which is a good thing because I got exactly what I was expecting.  This is the sort of film that cannot help but be what it is.  The first thing I said getting up from my chair when the credits rolled was “wow that was loud”.  On the bright side, I can’t deny having fun watching this movie.

- OK, the first thing you who are reading this will want to know is, this is one loud movie. In all fairness, I believe the theater I was in jacked the volume, but this movie had a lot of really interesting and sometimes obnoxious noises.

- There is really no need to think with this film, this is most definitely a “leave your brain at the door” popcorn flick. If you can roll with it, then cool, if not, you need to be watchin something else.

- This movie is about as subtle as a war hammer to the face, and this point is driven in even more by the last five minutes of the film. If they had held up a giant billboard with flashy lights saying “we will now set up the SEQUEL!”, they couldn’t have been more obvious.

- Here’s the one point of legitimate criticism, Natalie Portman’s character seemed to have almost no purpose in the film except to spearhead a storyline that led to some rather amusing fish-outa water humor. This isn’t the first time I’ve had this problem with the female leads in superhero films, and it’s unlikely to be the last.

- Here’s one thing I like about this film: The filmmakers seemed to know better than to take the material too seriously. Which is a good thing, it was a fun movie.

- There’s some seriously fun stuff going on in this film. When Thor comes to earth is the best part of the movie without a doubt. I guarantee plenty of laughs.

- There are some cool fight scenes in this film; my particular favorite is the one with the big guy in the mud outside the compound. Good stuff!

Most likely, this was purposely done, but the Norse gods in this movie overact like drop-outs from the Royal Shakespeare Company. This is my main problem with most films that have larger-than-life characters.

- This whole movie pretty much hangs on Chris Hemsworth’s performance, and he carries the film pretty well. He’s overzealous and completely awkward opposite the “mortal” characters.

- I think we all need to accept the fact that Idris Elba is cool in everything he does. He barely has 5 lines in this film. He just stands there, still as a statue in gold-plated armor, and he’s the coolest character in this movie!

- Natalie Portman is perhaps the only element grounding this film, which is good because she’s an excellent actress. She won’t be getting academy attention for Thor, but she’s probably looking to have a little fun after Black Swan. Everyone looked like they had fun shooting the film, you can tell just by watching it.

- Patrick Doyle is not my favorite composer, the music did what it was supposed to do, but it’s very much what you would expect from the score to a typical big-budget Hollywood blockbuster.

- Credit where credit is due – I can be as blasé as I like about all sorts things related to this film, but the cinematography isn’t one of them (I’ll get to the special effects in just a second). What you have to realize about this film is that it had a budget of 150 million dollars. It’s a great looking film, and a good portion of it takes place on another planet. I was impressed by the various fantastical landscapes. Everything was touchable, but not photorealistic if that makes sense.

- The nature of this film is that the special effects and the cinematography almost go hand in hand. The budget is definitely on the screen, and the special effects were good. I did not, however, see anything that really made my jaw drop. Nothing groundbreaking, but it was as convincing as it had to be. Like I said, you just can’t take this movie too seriously.

Thor is a movie where you have to leave your brain at the door. It has a thin plot, lots of noise and extravagant special effects. Don’t take it too seriously and have fun with it! 6/10