Thor (2011)

I took the plunge of not putting myself through the squinty-fiddley torture of wearing 3D glasses and went and saw Thor in 2D. I really don't know why I waited so long. Oh yeah... I'm a sucker. Marvel are a really great force in Hollywood movies at the moment. They have a pretty great pedigree of turning out these great big hulking epics, year-in-year out. Okay, the ones made at Fox are pretty sucky but well pretty much every movie made by Fox is. Exceedingly better are the recent slate of in-house productions made by Marvel themselves and then are given back to studios like Paramount and Universal to distribute. It incredibly unusual for movies to be made like this, it's like the idea of JK Rowling paying to make a Harry Potter movie herself. She could probably afford to do that too... That said it's incredibly risky putting your own money up and I'm certain that has a positive affect on the writing and direction of these movies.
I guess the most curious thing about Thor is that it was directed by Kenneth Branagh but that's one of the strokes of genius, they do at Marvel- they get strong personalities to work on their movies like him and Justin Theroux who wrote Iron Man 2 and they're making the 3rd with Shane Black. It's good becuase these guys are not used to working in the comic book medium and that means it keeps the production line, fresh.
Thor is great example of this. It's completely different stylistically from Iron Man, obviously more fantasy-orientated. Branagh approaches the fantasy stuff in a very operatic way, where everyone bellows their lines and takes this comic book hero and turns into a broad fantasy environment like a Lord of The Rings. It's an entertaining story of the bratty Thor, spoilt and entitled who is banished to Earth by his pops, Odin and brother Loki starts setting his own sights on ruling. Meanwhile on Earth, a group of New Mexico scientists are trying to figure out who this Thor is and where he came from... Chris Hemsworth is lovely as this boisterous he-managed and the sort of stuff you're supposed to hate in movies like fish-outta-water humor, is fine because he comes across so well. Anthony Hopkins gets to shout and wear and eye-patch. Tom Hiddleson is actually really good playing a tricky character like Loki, who's equal parts spiteful and empathetic. I'm glad Ray Stevenson and Idris Elba are successful in this movie, Stevenson in particular, channelling Brian Blessed is great fun and a complete departure from what he usually does. We also get a sneak introduction to someone intergral to The Avengers movie, halfway through the movie. The girls inc. Natalie Portman and Kat Dennings don't get much to do but then they are girls and as such do smell. That's kinda the tone- this is the kinda stuff that 8-12yo boys love.  And though, I'm no Whedonite - I'm sure his The Avengers will be great not only but mainly because of the Ruffalo playing the Hulk. Think about it- Ruffalo riffing with Robert Downey Jr. Even I can bust out a fan-boy squee for that....

I watched Thor (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Read My Lips (2001)...