Twelve cents a copy. That was the original price to 'Journey into the Mystery' of the Mighty Thor, the Norse god of lightning, thunder and overall strength. Created by Stan Lee and script writer Larry Lieber, using the god as a superhero in Marvel Comics, Thor burst out onto the comic scene in 1962. Fast forward almost fifty years and today that same character now appears in a summer blockbuster. It's too bad, though, that writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz forgot to realize that there is a whole backlog of mythology that just seems to escape the script. The result is a film that seems to have been produced just for the sake of making a few extra dollars.
The storyline follows Thor (Chris Hemsworth) as he is banished from his home world of Asgard right before being announced king. When a group of thieving Frost Giants from Jötunheimr attempt to steal a mythical casket from the war room, Thor breaks a truce with the Frost Giants and is exiled to Earth as punishment by his father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins). The story is the tale of a child becoming a wise leader in a trial-by-fire test with Thor being stripped of all his godly powers and having to survive as a regular human being.
While this storyline may sound great on paper, it's hard to relate this film back to any of the predecessors on the myth. While the comics do not strive to pay too close attention to the original mythology, the film seems completely detached from the legend and pays homage to the comic that it came from only in passing as a joke.
For example, there's one scene where Thor is handed a t-shirt with a name tag still attached that reads “Donald Blake.” When asked who that was, Doctor Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who eventually turns into Thor's lover, responds that it was her ex-boyfriend. To anyone not familiar with that name, it was the name that Thor used when he was condemned by his father to be a crippled human being on Earth until he learned a lesson. The mockery feels almost insulting when Jane responds, “It was the only clothes I could find that would fit.” The whole scene seems to make fun of the the fact that Donald Blake and Thor were the same person being that they were the same size. It also adds additional insult since the writers knew exactly what the original storyline was and seemed to not care when they intentionally decided to ignore all of it.
There are more instances where this film lampoons the comic, one of the biggest mistakes being that in the comics, Odin angers his father by love Earth so much he does not want to return to Asgard, yet in the Thor is someone dying to get back to his home world. It happens so frequently that it seems the producers didn't care how the movie worked as a piece in a larger franchise as long as it sold a lot of tickets. The end result is a movie that throws in enough of Stan Lee's original content that attempts to appease the fans, while still giving a big one finger salute to overall themes within the comics. It gave Miller and Stentz the ability to write without any duress from the existing storyline.
To movie goers who never read a single copy of The Mighty Thor, it might not make the slightest difference in the world. To anyone who liked the comics, Thor will be a saddening recreation of an early Marvel classic. Not considering that it spawned from a comic book, the movie itself is good at best.
Those who are looking for a graphics love fest, it's no Pandora from Avatar, but Asgard is definitely eye catching. The floating steel decorations, the perfectly geometric arches of the city, how it sparkles against whatever sun that floats in the sky, the realm of the gods truly is a beautiful world to be in. Bright colors pop out at the viewer, being essential since after all, Nordic gods do travel by rainbow bridges. The only warning to give about the cinematography and camera work is that in the style of director Kenneth Branagh; he slants the camera in far too many shots and it looks like the actors are going to slide off the screen sometimes.
If debating whether to see the 2D version or 3D version, the 2D version works far better. There is a fight scene on Jötunheimr that is almost impossible to see through the darkness and inherent blurriness of 3D. The 3D does not add much to any scenes other than landscapes of Asgard where the bright shining light looks prettier. Unfortunately, in major metropolises it's hard to find that many 2D showtimes. It lends the viewer to believe the 3D was included without artistically seeing if it was worth it or not.
In regards back to writing, the storyline is incredibly cliché. Boy thinks he's ready to be a man and is smart enough to lead, father doesn't think so and sends him on a journey, boy comes back with knowledge gained along the journey and is ready for the task at hand, this movie couldn't be more formulaic. The staff must have known it was so generic since there were plot twists that seemed to be forced in towards the end of the film.
The dialogue seems ridiculous also. The characters in multiple places asked, “Is this madness?” It felt like a toned down version of 300, where instead of watching three hundred ripped guys run around with unchecked temperaments, it was a single guy. There was even a scene where Thor walks into a pet shop and asks for an animal to ride. This didn't even make sense. Thor saw that people drove around in cars, could see all the animals for sale, and should have been able to deduct that there were no ride-able beasts in a pet store. Especially when you find out later that Thor is highly intelligent and already knew the mode of transportation of Earthlings.
The banality of humor became painful at a certain point in the movie. Whoever thought it was a great idea to have a recurring theme of Thor being hit by cars was gravely mistaken. It was laughable. Also, there's a scene where Thor smashes a coffee mug into the ground asking for another cup. Not only was he smart but incredibly courteous. It felt forced and didn't match the persona of the character at all.
On top of that, it would have been nice if the staff had at least one creative idea instead of having an obvious overall theme using the sword in the stone as your basis. Instead of a sword, it's a hammer but it's the exact same idea; the person worthy to lead is the only one who can take the hammer out of the ground. The creativity level in the drawing room was an all time low when this idea was sparked.
Also, the whole coming of age storyline would not have been so terrible had it not repeated itself. Self-sacrifice was trite to begin with, but then to repeat that same theme again was a mistake. Thor already suffered once, give him at least a victory lap.
The film is not the greatest ever. It does visually appealing though with some nice fight scenes. The whole point of this movie, though, appeared to give some background story for the upcoming Avengers film which the character Thor will have a place in. Even an allusion to Tony Stark from Iron Man was included. However, with the price of a ticket being fifteen dollars, and that original comic costing the same price as a piece of gum these days, it might be hard to justify getting in your car, spending all that money on gas, and seeing a movie that just doesn't deliver on the level that it should have been able to.
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