It's one of my favorite times of the year: Summer movie season. All the big blockbusters that I spend one to two years waiting for are finally getting released. I'm more of a fan of the big budget summer movies than I am the low budget independent movies. Don't get me wrong. There are some great independent releases. Moon - a 2009 independent Science Fiction movie - is one of my favorite Sci-Fi movies I've seen. A movie like 127 Hours, on the other hand, I slept through over half of.
Last year I chronicled about six months worth of movie going. I got lazy the second half of the year, and didn't continue my movie journey with you guys. I've caught a lot of flack for that. I apologize. I didn't realize I had such faithful readers. That's what comments are for, people. I'm self indulgent and enjoy attention. If you like a blog. Let me know. Anyway, on to the review.
I'm a huge fan of comic books. Have been since I could look at pictures. One day when I become a successful writer I would like to segway into the writing of comics. Currently I'm reading Preacher by Garth Ennis. It's one of the most exciting, and most disturbing, comics I've read. I want my uncle to snag this part if it ever makes it to film. Check out his IMDB page, James Jarrett. Once you've done that check out his movie Dance of the Dead. Uncle James stars as Gravedigger. One day he'll be remembered as a legend among zombie slayers.
This weekend, for Mother's Day, I took my mom to see Thor. The year 2008 was a revolutionary year for comic movies. The Dark Knight changed the way that people looked at movies based upon comics. It changed the way these movies could be made. Comic movies, like comic books, can be serious and adult oriented. Read Watchmen, The Killing Joke, and The Dark Knight Returns. Those, my friends, are not your run of the mill comics. They're game changers. Alan Moore is my favorite comic writer. He's the Herman Melville of the comic industry. He's crazy but will blow your mind. The last two years or so have been weak years for comic based movies. It's sad to say. However, I think Thor is the best comic movie since The Dark Knight.
Let me get to Thor. This movie was awesome. It starts off with a bang. The movie doesn't slow down for about a half hour. You're taken down this crazy winding row about the feud the Norse Gods have with the Frost Giants. I love Norse Mythology. I have about three books on my Kindle about Norse Mythology that I'm about to wet my pants to read. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Norse mythology is also a reason I'm a fanboy of The Wheel of Time. Robert Jordan weaves so much of the mythology into the series you can have a field day hunting the myths out.
Chris Hemsworth played the ideal Thor. I loved the guy. I think Hemsworth looked even better than the comic. I've never been a reader of Thor, but this movie made me a fan. I've also never been a fan of how Thor looked on page. I was skeptical of this movie because of that. Chris Hemsworth made me believe the Norse God of Thunder might actually exist, and if he did, he would be none different than he was portrayed on screen.
Tom Hiddleson approached the part of Loki in an interesting way. He based his character on Shakespeare's Henry V. It's been years since I've read play but I thought it was very fitting for the character. Hiddleson's performance should give the viewers a balanced mixture of sympathy and dislike for Loki.
The rest of the cast were all nice additions. Natalie Portman, of course, holds her own with Hemsworth and Hiddleson. I've never been disappointed with any movie Ms. Portman has acted in. She had me at The Professional. Another member of the secondary cast who did not disappoint was Anthony Hopkins. He was stellar as Odin the All Father.
One aspect of this movie that I loved was the humor. There were a number of scenes where I laughed out loud. I think this is going to make the movie very assessable to the casual viewer. One scene in particular is where Thor is hitting at a hole in the wall restaurant. He's had his first cup of coffee ever. In appreciation of this fine cup of Joe he slams the mug upon the floor and shouts, "I'll have another!" I believe every single person in theater laughed. It's much funnier than my small snippet.
My only complaint about the movie is that the Frost Giants looked like the demons from the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Each time those guys were on screen I expected Sara Michelle Gellar to ram a stake through their chests. Thank God she never did.
Thor is a nice christening for the 2011 movie season.
Grade: A+
I'm looking forward to the rest of the movie season. Here are other movies I'll be checking out:
THE HANGOVER PART II
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
SUPER 8
GREEN LANTERN
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 2
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
COWBOYS AND ALIENS
CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES*
30 MINUTES OR LESS
CONAN THE BARBARIAN
*I'm a devotee of the original Planet of the Apes. If this turns out to be a horrendous adaption like Tim Burton's piece of trash I'll never see another having to do with apes taking over the world.
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