A Darwinian Superman II with Big Laughs

Rating: 7/10 (10 September 2011)

Nearly half of Thor is set in Asgard, one of the universe's nine "realms," which is reigned over by King Odin. Thor is Odin's oldest son and is therefore entitled to the throne, but he's foolhardy, bigheaded and impetuous, which is why he heads a group of fighters in an anticipatory assault against Asgard's foes, the Frost Giants. For this, Odin takes away Thor's power, which comes from his magical hammer, and expels him to Earth, where he's accommodated by Natalie Portman, in her third decidedly unambitious screen role since her success with Black Swan, an astrophysicist who's in the infancy of hypothesizing the very universal trapdoor through which Thor just came. The biggest shock is that the film is most effective and involving where you would least expect it. One would think that Branagh would do more with the film's unsmiling supernatural constituents and probably labor over its more down-to-earth relief stretches, yet it's precisely the opposite.
The tone is unexpectedly good-humored. Baffled as to who he is, Jane imagines that Thor might be extraterrestrial, although her partner Stellan Skarsgård is dubious because all the words and names that Thor uses are recognizable to him from his Scandinavian background. Nonetheless, they wind up helping him in his pursuit to reclaim the hammer, albeit double-super-secret government agency S.H.I.E.L.D., headed by Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson, known from the Iron Man movies, has located it already. Meanwhile, back in Asgard, Thor's younger brother Loki, who initially seemed to be a level-headed sounding board, is scheming behind Thor's back to guarantee that his exile is eternal and he inherits the kingdom. Given Branagh's qualifications in Shakespeare and literary adaptations, one would assume that the royal and familial plot on Asgard would be the film's highlights, but these scenes are indeed very tedious, and occasionally fairly stilted.
Maybe it's due to all the digital sets and backdrops, which are lavishly accomplished but never quite seem palpable, not to mention a whole 'nother century of cinema's worth of dutch angles. Where Branagh genuinely enlivens the film is on Earth, where a light-hearted and even cleverly hilarious streak offsets the take-me-serious histrionic matters. The first half hour of this silly movie is indeed a drag as it's too sanctimonious, but once Thor discovers himself in the deserts of New Mexico, it's priceless, and all the more so as it's so unexpected, to see these very relatable mere mortals look on while he speaks in some sort of imitation-medieval English. "I need sustenance!" he proclaims at a small-town diner, shortly before smashing his coffee cup on the floor. And eventually he grasps, rather hilariously, that he's no longer as mighty as he was before, his schooling in modesty and logic assume a valid emotional concentration.
Thor, a prince in any case, is chivalrous and reverential of women, but also a hard-drinking, giant-slaughtering conqueror once deified by Vikings. We find ourselves regularly laughing with the movie, for instance at the way he reacts to doctors attempting to take his blood, or how he asks for that second cup of coffee at breakfast. Still, where the movie loses my interest is in that faraway dimension, where the set design's tawdry golden flash envelops the quarrels of the gods---essentially, the swarthy conspirator against the heroic Aryan---comes across as an incessant, uninflected one-note huff. Kat Dennings as Portman's friend discharges some well-delivered lines and then practically evaporates, beautiful bosom and all, but on Asgard, Rene Russo, as Odin's wife-slash-Thor's mother, has one line and nothing else to do.
Thankfully, the Shakespearean at the helm manages to inculcate a taste of the Bard's irony. Speaking of which, just because Loki's a hackneyed character doesn't mean young British actor Tom Hiddleston wouldn't make a first-rate Edmund in King Lear: He's better at relating his resentment and jealousy than any evil or wickedness. Thor boils down to nothing more than big laughs, loud and tacky Hollywood action, and a hero who requires suffering the loss of his might before he can truly be mighty. It's a lesser installment in the superhero adaptation bubble, but one that is wonderfully entertaining on its own restricted conditions.