Review: Thor

While everyone was busy with the Royal Wedding, in anticipation of the balcony kiss between Kate Middleton and Prince William, I had to settle for Natalie Portman liplocking Chris Hemsworth.

Thor is based on Marvel's comicbook franchise which draws inspiration from Norse mythology. That said, it shouldn't come as a surprise to see loads of explosion, action, CG, a superhero with issues, and as mentioned, the cast includes Portman. And trust me, she is a good reason to see the movie.

Hemsworth plays Thor, the god of thunder and one of the two princes of Asgard. Just when the king of Asgard, Odin, was about to entrust the kingdom to Thor, enemies infiltrate their kingdom to steal the Casket of Ancient Winters, a relic that can unleash massive snowstorms and freeze anything in an instant. Infuriated by this incident, Thor gathers his comrades and pays a visit to enemy territory, Jotunheim, to get some payback. Outnumbered, Thor and friends were forced to retreat, but not before breaking the truce between Asgard and Jotunheim, and this leads to a series of problems.

Thor, like all Marvel movies this generation has seen, boasts CG effects. While the eye candies this film had to offer did not disappoint, there wasn't anything special about it. I saw the movie in 3D and I was like "meh". So if you've seen it in IMAX, please do tell me how it looked. But trust me, you'd want Thor for the story.

I'm not what you'd call a comicbook junkie so I know little about Thor. But the movie did a great job of introducing him to me. It offered a brief yet concise backstory behind the main characters, and these characters do a great job of driving the story. Hemsworth knew what it took to be an ever cocky Thundergod. Anthony Hopkins doesn't eat anyone alive in this film, and instead, plays a great disciplinarian in Odin. And Portman was simply beautiful as Jane Foster that I'm out of words to describe her.

The movie though is pretty predictable as expected from a comicbook movie. All the action, romance, evil scheming and betrayal managed to work together to lead to the climactic part of the film where Thor learns a lesson in humilty and sacrifice. The fight scenes are also good. Since Thor is the god of Thunder, and wields a war hammer, Mjolinir, you can expect a lot of smashing and thundershocking ala-Pikachu to go down. But if you play DOTA, you'll find more ways to appreciate the battles.

In addition, there's a Hawkeye sighting and a mention of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, so this a pretty good build-up to the highly anticipated The Avengers movie.

Again, I'm not into Thor, so I'm not really sure if the movie did a really great job in portaying the thundergod, and if the film was able to transfer all essential comic elements to the big screen. But one of the reasons why Marvel is making comicbook films is to reach out to a wider demographic outside of the comicbook purists. And I'd say, seeing Thor made me want to pick up its printed version while doing some reading on Norse mythology on the side.