THOR
By Mike Wilmington
 
Thor (Three Stars)
U.S.: Kenneth Branagh, 2011
 
High on the endless spires and bridges of Asgard, plunged in a vast gloom in monumental, sinister “Viking Noir” decor, besieged by Frost Giants, and always in danger of tumbling into New Mexico, dwells the Odin family.
 
Ah, the Odins! There is mighty Thor (Chris Hemsworth) the hunky Norse hothead , wielder of the magical hammer Mjolnir. And his duplicitous little creep of a brother, wily Loki (Tom Hiddleston), with his double-Loki tricks. And Big Daddy Odin himself, played like a one-eyed King in search of his Lear by Anthony Hopkins. And the suggestively named and mostly quiet Queen Frigga (Rene Russo). 
Thor is a movie that all but dares you not to be entertained by it, and frankly, when I saw it, I was too tired to resist. Nothing too clever about the lines, nothing too witty about the script, nothing much up its dramatic sleeves — but it looks fabulous (except for the 3D), and the actors seem to be having a good, plummy time, pretending to be Gods and scientists and government agents. Director Kenneth Branagh didn‘t make a Thor that surpassed or transcended itself or that elevated the genre, and he‘s often upstaged by Bo Welch’s spectacular production design and Hemsworth’s virility and Hopkins‘ endless death throes. But Branagh didn’t gum it up either.
 
The movie works, and not because the masses are stupid, or have crass tastes. Thor is not especially well-written but it’s mostly well and classily done. It’s pseudo art of a sometimes exhilarating hokiness, and it even has a sense of humor. It has action, spectacle, romance (and plummy speeches), and to some audiences — and not just the legions of “Fanboys” who are getting pistol-whipped in the more sarcastic reviews of this film — that’s what movies were made to give us. I don’t agree, but I liked the movie’s brazen sense of itself, the way it flaunts its budget and its stars and its effects (except for the 3D) and keeps flirting with the big-superhero-movie predictability that never quite sinks it.
　
Most of all though, I liked Thor because it was an obvious smash hit, and that meant that Branagh might be able to squeeze three good Shakespearean adaptations out of the heaps of moolah and studio good will he’s generated here.
 
Unlike some acid observers, I don’t think we should look at Thor as the evidence of some kind of internal aesthetic war raging between Branagh’s (good) Shakespearean side and the (bad) tyranny of pop culture which has him its claws (and hammers). Instead, we should hope Branagh figures out a way he can use this success with the mass audience to get back to filming Shakespeare, the thing he‘s really good at. I expect a Richard III, or a Twelfth Night, a Macbeth (pardon me, I meant “The Scottish Play“), a Henry IV, Pts. 1 & 2 and maybe a Troilus and Cressida, or a King Lear with Hopkins, or at least one or two of them, as the fruits of these no-love-lost movie labors, and as the true progeny of the financial hammer that is Thor.
 
And if Branagh chooses instead to try to do another Marvel, to do a Doc Octopus spin-off, or sign on for a new Iron Man, I’ll be deeply disappointed. But, in any case, I’ll never have to look at Thor again. It’s obviously one of those movies that gives it all the first time. And it amused both me and the Saturday morning audience I saw it with.
 
Oh, the 3D. Tacked on afterwards, or so they say, it’s completely irrelevant. It adds nothing to Thor except the usual 3D darkness. And even if you’re a 3D aficionado, you should just pass it up and go see the 2D version instead — unless you feel irresistibly drawn to the pleasures of watching a flung hammer hurled toward your head.
 
The movie has more to offer anyway. And, if you let it, it’ll show you a sort of a good time. Except for the 3D. Now, none of that stereoptic stuff when you get to do Troilus and Cressida, director Branagh. Keep it Shakespearean.

 
Like most mythological families, this one has problems. Odin seems to be dying, and taking forever to do it. Loki can’t be trusted and probably has designs on everything West of the Nibelungen. Frigga is perturbed. The Frost Giants prowl around, clearly up to no good. And Thor — whom Stan Lee and Jack Kirby once planted between the pages of Marvel Comics in a long-ago Golden Age many of us remember — well, that Scandinavian bombshell (played by an Australian) blows his stack right at the start and winds up in, you guessed it, New Mexico.
 
A lutefisk out of water. A mythic hero adjusting to a land and age of  nuclear power and truckstop food. With his hammer. And with a budget vaster than Asgard’s bridges and spires. And Natalie Portman as astrophysicist Jane Foster, swooning, though not over anything astrophysical. And Stellan Skarsgard as scientist Erik, brooding. And Kat Dennings as helper Darcy, cracking wise. Thor and Valhalla never had it so good. Except for the 3D.

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