Sunday, May 8, 2011

If I Had A Hammer....


I have just seen Thor in 3D. I could have done without the 3D and I expected the producers would not be strictly following Norse mythology. They didn't.
A large chunk of the movie does not take place on earth but in Asgard and Jotunheim, the abode of the ice giants. It reminds me a little of the bogus mythology that introduced Hellboy II, The Golden Army. It didn't make my head blow off that they made Nuadda a son of Balor and I could deal with the alteration of the facts here too. Odin destroyed the ice giants before there were humans but that's okay. Loki was not an ice giant or Odin's son but that's okay too. Frigg is not Thor's mother but we won't quibble about that either. Bifrost is a rainbow not a wormhole but they are trying to make it believable to a modern sophisticated audience. There was a gratuitous shirt-free scene which was awesome. We wouldn't want all that working out to go to waste. If all the Asgardians look like that - call me converted.
On the whole, it was good. Not too hokey. It was strange seeing a ninja Asgardian but every movie has their little team, made up of the big, dumb gorilla, the sassy girl, smart guy, square-jawed hero and the chinese ninja guy. At least we did not have to look at them for long. The story focused on Loki's rather complicated love/hate relationship with Asgard which works since Loki does cause most of the problems.
Thor is not the brightest thing; he just likes to fight and gets Odin angry with him. He is deprived of his hammer and sent to earth to learn some humility. He learns just enough to get his hammer back and then he starts kicking *ss again. He falls in love with a human - Natalie Portman's character. I don't like her as Thor's love interest; she is too wimpy. I can't seen him joining S.H.I.E.L.D either. Those are the good guys from Iron Man. Thor doesn't take orders from anyone but Odin.
I went with two teenaged boys, one teenaged girl and myself - middle aged mama. We all liked it. Don't look for insight into the human condition; Dostoyevsky and Zola did not write Thor novels and that's okay, too.

7 comments:

Anachronist said...

The right approach to this one seems to be crucial. Thanks for your review - I might be tempted and less disappointed than it would be the case if I went unprepared. I've always had a thing or two for Loki. Oh and probably I will wait a bit and buy a dvd. ;p

Kristin said...

You're mellowing! They butchered mythology and you're okay with it!

In the picture, that thing behind him looks like Mordor and the Eye of Sauron. :)

The Red Witch said...

The guy playing Loki is attractive too. :-)
I am not mellowing. :-) I just knew going in that it was based on the comic books and not the Eddas. Thor was never banished to earth to live as a mortal.
They didn't totally butcher it. It reminded me a little of the beginning of Hellboy II.
You have this war between the Ice Giants and the Aesir that the Aesir of course win and take away an object that gives the Ice Giants their power. Someone is trying to break the truce and Thor is foaming at the mouth to kick some Ice Giant butt. The struggle for power spills over into mortal realms as that giant robot thingy is sent to kill Thor.

The Plashing Vole said...

Sounds like popcorn fun.
But - 'the facts'?

Tracy said...

Sounds like the kind of movie I'd happily watch if they showed it on TV (Like Ironman the other evening) but I wouldn't bother going to the cinema to watch.
But it sounds like you all had fun.

The Red Witch said...

@But - 'the facts'?

They were not so altered as to make me foam at the mouth. :-)

Tracy, For some films only the big screen and surround sound will do. The price of the film was shocking though. I usually go to the matinees to save a few bucks but they abolished the matinee price. And they had a guy, standing by the door, watching the audience for the entire movie to make sure no one tapes it.

Anachronist said...

And they had a guy, standing by the door, watching the audience for the entire movie to make sure no one tapes it.

Oh here I would love to see an evil Loki who tapes the movie using a buttonhole camera :D AND distributes it for free. Some cinema ticket prices are simply riddiculously high. I prefer to wait some time and buy a dvd - not only I can watch a movie several times and lend it to friends but also the dvd is sometimes way cheaper than the cinema ticket.