Rated PG-13 for intense sci-fi action/violence
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgard, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh is an ideal choice to direct a movie like this. His career is defined by a gleeful adoration for literature's most enduring themes interwoven throughout the fabric of larger-than-life personalities. My favorite Branagh film was the mysterious love story "Dead Again" where he and Emma Thompson played strangers brought together through happenstance only to discover they were lovers entwined in a tumultuous marriage in a previous life. It was a love mystery that defied the boundaries of time while never allowing cynicism anywhere near its field of gravity. That takes balls.
As the movie opens, we see a trio of scientists embedded in the desolate New Mexico desert. It's the dead of night. A young physicist named Jane (Natalie Portman) is awaiting the arrival of some kind of celestial event. Her mentor (Stellan Skarsgard) is skeptical, while her associate Darcy (Kat Dennings) would rather be someplace else. Then it happens. The sky opens up, a beam of light shoots down. They board their vehicle, race toward the light only to bump into an already battered stranger, hurling him to the ground.
The man is Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and, in his previous world, was set to succeed the throne of Asgard from his father, Odin (the splendid Anthony Hopkins). Asgard's glossy domain exists solely for the protection of all other universal realms, including earth. When its lavish preserve is infiltrated by a group of vicious ice-hurling monsters, Thor insists on their total annihilation. His father, wiser with age, is reluctant. The impetuous would-be heir embarks on his own mission to wipe out their race. This enrages Odin, who strips Thor of his powers and banishes him to earth.
Thor's half-brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has his own sights set on the throne, albeit by much more furtive means. After being imparted with a painful truth from Odin (right before Odin collapses into a coma, in a bout of remarkably bad timing), Loki puts his plans into action and ascends to the throne. Thor, meanwhile, embarks on a quest to retrieve the famed mallet that will restore his power. While on his quest, he befriends the common folk of earth and learns that the path to preservation needn't always come at the destruction of another.
My description makes the movie seem more subdued and introspective than it is. There is thundering action aplenty, and the world of Asgard is a triumph of imagination. The best special effects number involves a bridge and portal through which the warriors travel to do their bidding, guarded by a steely-eyed gatekeeper (Idris Elba) with an unusual knack for seeing inside the hearts of those who wish to cross into another realm. Branagh is not really known for action fare, but has surrounded himself with a stellar production team, including production designer Bo Welch (a collaborator of Tim Burton) and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos. In Asgard, they've created a seraphic province that revels in its regality.
Chris Hemsworth is a strong presence as Thor, yet is wise to not make him too grandiose that he becomes inaccessible to the audience. He chews the scenery well in the early scenes, but his best moments are when he first lands on earth without his powers, and struggles to comprehend the best way to act in his new surroundings. In addition to action and drama, the film unearths a surprising amount of humor from its premise.
Beneath the gloss and the action and the engagingly over-the-top performances, however, is the film's strongest trait... the optimistic belief in an alternate realm colonized not only by protectors, but by people who wonder about us. Observe. Hope. Consider both our joys and our sorrows, and wish us peace. That Branagh can deliver such a sentiment in a package that also satisfies the summer-movie action hunger is quite an achievement.
* * * out of * * * * stars
