Way Up North

Rating: 8/10 (3 December 2013)

I have been dragged through the Marvel milieu by my son. Contrary to my snobbish initial prejudices, I have enjoyed these quite a bit. This one, of course, sets the stage for the appearance of Thor, the hammer-wielding hunk, who is striving top prove himself worthy of becoming king in the upper-world, possibly displacing Anthony Hopkins' Odin at some point. The fly in the ointment (actually there are several) is his sort of half brother, Loki, whose face reminds me of a hybrid of Brent Spiner and Pee Wee Herman. He is really full of the Dickens and totally amoral, especially after finding out a secret which I will not divulge. The strength of this film is that it does a very nice job of storytelling, despite it's ignorance of real Norse mythology. Nobody cares. We understand the powers of the characters, we like the romance between mortal and demi-god, the main character is charming though violent, and the movie has a sense of humor, where we can be allowed to take a breath at times. And there are unanswered questions, which have us waiting for the next adventure. Unfortunately for me, I've seen these things all out of order, so I try to evaluate them on their individual merits. I had a nice time.