God of Thunder likes beer

THOR (2011)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Back in 1996, Kenneth Branagh made the exasperating, overlong, stupendously amazing and richly layered and highly melodramatic "Hamlet." Branagh took the source material, adapted it to the 19th century, and took almost every word for word from the original text and made it breathe in a stunning 70mm format. Laurence Olivier would've been proud. So what is my point? My point is that I was not the least bit surprised that Branagh took on the comic-book "Thor." He has created an exasperating, stupendously amazing and richly detailed film that is not the least bit overlong or too melodramatic. Branagh occasionally thinks big and, when he does, he creates dazzling entertainment. And the Shakespearean allusion to the comic-book is there in full-force.

"Thor" is the God of Thunder, majestically played by Chris Hemsworth, a brash, arrogant, prideful warrior who longs to be King of Asgard. Thor's father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), sees how brash Thor is and before Thor is inducted in a ceremony, the Frost Giants crash the party. The Frost Giants are eight or nine-foot creatures who have the ability to turn anyone into ice. They are after the sacred Casket of Ancient Winters - it is their lifeforce that was taken from them by Odin during a past war. When Thor learns that Asgard's security has been breached, he takes his motley crew of warriors (The Warriors Three) to Jotenheim, the ice planet where the Frost Giants reside. A big battle ensues, with Thor wielding his powerful hammer with great velocity. Odin, who wished to settle peacefully with the Frosties, feels that Thor has betrayed him and banishes him to the planet Earth, in addition to sending the hammer there as well, firmly placed on a rock like Excalibur. When Thor learns humility and a sense of worth, he just might get his powerful weapon back.

When the film is earthbound, we learn that an astrophysicist, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), is awestruck in the New Mexico desert by wormholes in the nightly sky. Little does she know that the wormholes bring Thor to Earth. Jane is smitten by Thor and can't comprehend his Norse-like method of dispatching doctors and policemen by flinging them with Hulk-like precision. Thor is a mortal on Earth and tries to get Jane, her mentor Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård), and Jane's i-Pad-prone and bored tech-savvy assistant, Darcy (Kat Dennings), to release his precious hammer so he can get back to Asgard. Only problem is that Thor's deceitful brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston, who looks like Iago, Othello's betrayer), craves Odin's throne and has some evil deeds up his sleeve. If the familial problems of the gods of other planets isn't in some way related to Shakespeare (and Branagh freely admits it is intended to), then I do not know what is.

"Thor" could have been a CGI fest of explosions and a lot of grunts and bells and whistles, sort of like the tepid "Conan the Barbarian" remake. Thanks to director Branagh and the ideally cast Chris Hemsworth, I breathed a sigh of relief when I did not see a single explosion within the first five minutes. Okay, that was a little sarcastic. I actually said, thank you Mr. Hemsworth who makes Thor a jolly, passionate, arrogant, funny God of Thunder. He does not look ridiculous in his armor or when he wields the hammer (unlike that especially campy version of Thor from "The Incredible Hulk Returns" TV movie). This is not a Thor that lands with a thud - he lands with humor, panache and a larger-than-life charisma. And when he is banished by his father, I can't say I wasn't more than a little moved by Hemsworth's nuanced, humanistic Thor.

The movie also has a great pair of villains, including Loki who will figure in the plot of the upcoming "The Avengers" movie; a tremendously exciting sequence with the Destroyer, which is a metal giant that can demolish a New Mexico town with his heat-emitting visor; superb special-effects of the planets of Asgard and Joteheim and those flashy rainbow bridges and a rotating sphere known as the Bifrost that offers passage between planets (the Bifrost is such a believable piece of machinery that I was ready to duck when it rotated at great speeds); Anthony Hopkins' opening narration of the times of war that will remind some of his similar tone of voice-over in Coppola's "Dracula"; and Stellan Skarsgård who is a hoot and a half as the doctor, who loved reading stories about Thor as a child but can't bring himself to believe he is sharing a beer with the God of Thunder.

If I have a gripe, it is Natalie Portman. She is an empty vessel of love in this movie, and it shows how times have changed when she delivered far more depth in her career-making roles in "The Professional" and "Beautiful Girls" than here. I suppose if the role had been played by current "2 Broke Girls" sitcom star, Kat Dennings, this movie might have been perfect popcorn fare. Added to that is the fleeting appearance by Rene Russo as Thor's mother - an easy paycheck and a bit of a waste of an actress who has not been used well in a long time.

Still, one slight miss in an otherwise brightly shaped and colored comic-book fantasy like "Thor" is like saying there is a floating pin in the universe headed for Asgard. Yeah, not that big a deal.