Chris Hemsworth - Thor
Natalie Portman - Jane Foster
Tom Hiddleston - Loki
Anthony Hopkins - Odin
Stellan Skarsgård - Erik Selvig
Kat Dennings - Darcy Lewis
Clark Gregg - Agent Coulson
Colm Feore - King Laufey
Ray Stevenson - Volstagg
It’s safe to say that on May 6 the 2011 Summer movie season officially kicked off with a bang when Thor came out across the globe. This movie had some high expectations considering it was the next movie in a line of Marvel movies that link to the upcoming Avengers movie and well the last franchise that was part of this set of movies were the highly successful Iron Man movies. It also had the distinction of having no middle ground pre-hype. People thought it was either going to be amazing or it was going to be complete shit.
Fortunately for us moviegoers it was not complete shit. Actually it was pretty awesome.
Well awesome considering it was an origin movie. While not as good an origin movie as Iron Man (which featured a spectacular performance by Robert Downey Jr and had a few people put it up there with the Dark Knight), it had something that set it apart from the typical origin movie. It wasn’t showing how a man got his powers and became this spectacularly heroic being. It was more a movie about how he had those powers but was in need of a reality check. You pretty much got the action right away before is ceded to the plot until it was mixed with more action which for a story like Thor that is the perfect formula. What it also introduced was the realm of Asgard which is depicted wonderfully.
With everything established as quickly it helps out the people who have little to no patience with stuff like plot and character development(which Thor also had but a lot of people like to bitch and moan when the hero isn’t in costume fighting right away).
As for the acting, Chris Hemsworth did a decent job as the title character and Anthony Hopkins made for a great Odin. The actor I really want to spotlight is Tom Hiddleston as the role of Loki. He made Loki into the perfect storm of emotion and sneaky bastard which was spot on for the character. This movie is to him as Inglorious Basterds was to Christoph Waltz in terms of introducing most of the world to an actor. As for the rest of the cast, Natalie Portman and Stellen Skarsgard proved to be good supporting pieces to the cast and it is always great to see Kat Dennings in anything.
The Warriors Three was casted perfectly. You had Ray Stevenson as Volstagg (he is known for playing The Punisher in Punisher: War Zone), Joshua Dallas as Fandral, and Tadanobu Asano as Hogun (you might remember him as Kakihara in Ichi the Killer). Also in the movie shortly was Rene Russo as Thor’s step-mother Frigga.
There is one actor I will point out due to the controversy that his casting started. Despite what the mullet wearers on white supremacy sites will say, I think Idris Elba was perfect casting for Heimdall.
He was stoic but had a sense of all knowing which you need for the person who can see anything he wants on all the realms. I also laughed when people got pissed by the casting of a black man to play Kingpin in the Daredevil movie because in my opinion, sometimes you have to cast for acting ability over appearance. Considering Kingpins attributes, Michael Clark Duncan was perfect casting and considering Heimdalls attributes, Idris Elba was perfect casting for the role. It’s not the actor’s fault that the original artist painted the character in a wall.
There was also plenty linking this to the Avengers. Clark Gregg returns as the Shield Agent Coulson, which he played in Iron Man 1 and 2. They had a continuation of scene that was hidden at the end of Iron Man 2 which shows why it looked like a cookout around Mjolnir. There was a cameo of Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye where he actually got dialogue in it. And of course there is a post-credit scene that I will not describe but comic fans will have a full out nerdgasm once they realize the object in the scene.
SUMMARY: I’d say this is a really good origin story. Not as good as Iron Man or Batman Begins, but better than most of the rest. 4 complaining fanboys out of 5.
Written By: Mike Falcone
Twitter: @BrainstuFalcone
