Candy and a Movie: Movie # 49 Thor

Thor (2011)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800369/

I'm back! After almost a week away due to finals and then a funeral, I am starting up the blog machine again. Even though I was away, new readers from Brazil, Singapore and Guadeloupe still logged on for the first time. Most excellent. Also, I just created a page on facebook (http://candyandamovie.blogspot.com/ ). That means if you become a fan that every time I make a new post, it will show up on your feed. What a convenience.

With the Avengers coming out on Friday, I needed to catch up on my superhero movies. I decided why not watch them in the order that they came out so it will be Thor first, then X-Men First Class (who I don't think will be in the Avengers, I just wanted to watch it) and then Captain America. Before jumping into the review, I'll give you a little lesson about a certain angle used in filming. It's called a Dutch Angle. Turn your head 45 degrees to one side and things look crooked right? The same thing happens when you turn the camera a little bit.

Example

They are used to create uneasiness in high tension scenes. Maybe someone is being chased and keep tripping in a dark, creepy hallway. Tipping the camera can make things a little more eerie. It can make things look dumb too. Lets say for example the camera turns to someone eating pancakes and they use a dutch angle. It just doesn't look right. You don't want to over use the shot, I would say more than two is too much and don't ever use it on trivial stuff. I'm certainly not an expert about these things. Like I don't know who is the one who makes the call about using these shots, the director or the cinematographer but it's something you expect from a rookie. If you've ever had a video camera and want to film something for the first time, probably one of the first things that you will try is to see what happens when you tilt the camera a little. You see it all over those bad SyFy channel movies because those people don't know what they are doing and it makes the movie even more crappy. Then you see someone like Christopher Nolan use it twice in the Dark Knight when someone is hanging upside down, not seeing the world normally so we don't see it normal either. Appropriate time to shoot at an angle. Why am I saying this? Because I think there are more of these shots in Thor than for any movie that I can remember seeing. I looked things up and the director said that he did it because he wanted things to feel more like a comic book. Come on dude.

Yes I really just complained about the cinematography in a super hero movie. But there is more to it. First scene takes place somewhere in New Mexico. Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard (Eric(good actor)) and Kat Dennings (Darcy) are in a truck riding around in the desert. The are some kind of scientists looking for storms. Maybe they are looking for Thor's, I'm not sure. Then something Thor related crashes to the ground. I don't know what it is because either the movie or the TV is too dark. It was Thor. Time for a flashback.

It's 900 A.D in Norway. The villagers then had to deal with frost giants which must've been a huge bummer. I turned up the brightness on the TV, it definitely was the problem. Ok, the Norwegians luckily enough have Anthony Hopkins come down from the sky and fight off the giants (who are normal sized not gigantic). Human Anthony Hopkins would've been plenty to deal with them but in this movie he is Odin, the king of the gods. The giants get defeated by the gods and Odin loses his eye. I don't like eyes not in sockets or sockets without eyes (see Kill Bill Vol 2.) so I wish that he just had the patch on for the whole movie.

After the battle we see Asgard, the home of the gods. I think it's pretty corny. It looks like a golden city of the future. I always imagined that it would have big stone and wooden buildings, be more vikingy. It's too fancy for a bunch of warriors. We see kid Thor and his brother Loki. They seem to be buds until Odin tells them that only one can have the throne. Loki gets jealous because Thor is the first born and heir.

Skip forward to the day that Thor is being made king. The dude is pretty cocky. It's his coronation and he seems to be living it up. His beautiful blonde hair swaying everywhere. Right when Odin is about to say that you are now king, three frost giants break into Asgard and try to steal their cube of power back. I don't know why it has their power in it, but Odin took it after he defeated them and they need it back to rise again. This sentry robot pops out of the wall and blasts them away. It's super loud. The sound mixing in this sucks. All of the dialogue is to quiet which forced me to turn up the volume. Then some explosion or something would happen that was deafening and I'd have to turn it back down. I was in constant battle with it all movie.

So because of that interruption, Thor isn't named king. He throws a hissy fit. I have to say that he is a hot head and not good king material right now. He talks to some of his friends. One is supposed to be the fat one although he isn't all that fat. He's played by the same guy who was the new Punisher. There is a guy with a mustache and an Asian guy. About that, Idris Elba plays the gate keeper too. I don't know how much diversity there was in Norse mythology but I don't have a problem with them updating things for the movie. A lot of people online seemed to question it, but I don't see what the big deal is. Loki is with them and so is the dark haired lady Sif. Babe. Together they all follow Thor through the bridge between worlds and into the frost giant's realm. Thor thought it was messed up how they came and attacked during his big king unveiling and wants to get revenge by bringing the fight with him. This ice planet looks a whole lot better than Asgard does as far as effects go. They find the king and get to fighting. Thor is dominating but the rest of his friends are taking a beating. The giants freeze you whenever you get touched but when they touch Loki he absorbs it and looks perplexed. Hmm, foreshadowing? A giant yeti thing chases them down and when they are on the brink of defeat, Odin shows up to save the day. Thor is stoked and thinks he is there to rage with all of them but he is mad at Thor for pretty much starting a war. They go back home and the two of them get into a war of words. Thor calls him and old man and a fool. Odin says that he has betrayed all of them by going on that attack. He takes away all of Thor's powers and banishes him from Asgard. He then whispers to Thor's hammer and weapon, the Mjolnir, ever so sweetly that whoever can wield it's powers has to be worthy. I guess that means Thor has some learning to do from Portman.

Speaking of her, we see Thor crash to earth again. Portman is back in the truck which then runs over Thor. He acts like he is a god, Darcy gets scared, and tasers him. I imagined him saying “don't tase me bro” in like old English and I laughed on the inside a bit. They leave while the hammer is falling to the earth in the distance out of their sight.

Basically the next 30 minutes is supposed to be kind of funny with Thor acting like a god who is out of place on earth. It gets old to the point where I got a little tired of it and was just waiting for the moment where Thor gets defeated and realizes he isn't a god and has to chance his attitude. Because you know it's coming. Once he does that, then he can pick up the hammer and save the day. There's the rest of the movie spoiled for you, sorry. He interacts with Portman and the other scientists who want to find out more about him. Thor takes his shirt off and she falls for him. No one can blame her because he is looking pretty godly. We get a little background about Loki who becomes the new king when Odin goes into a coma (acoma). He isn't Odin's real son but really the kid of the frost giant's king. Surprise. Odin found him alone and took him as his own. Loki drops some serious acting during the scene, yelling that he was only pawn in Odin's plan to get a truce between them.

Shield shows up and turns where the hammer fell into Roswell type secret base. They confiscate all of Portman's stuff because she had info on it. She and Thor show up outside the bunker where the hammer is and Thor breaks in to try and it get. It's probably the best scene of the movie for me. Hawkeye (one of the future avengers) shows up and really doesn't do anything. Thor gets to the hammer and can't pick it up, now he's bummed. Shield interrogates him and when they leave the room, Loki shows up. Tells Thor a bunch of lies like Odin is dead. Loki also told the frost giant king that he would give them back their power cube if they kill Odin. That isn't very nice. I forgot this, in the middle of Thor going to get his hammer, Portman calls Eric and the first thing she's says is “Don't worry, I'm fine”. If someone ever calls you out of the blue and that is the first thing they say, they aren't safe and they want you to be not safe with them.

Eric gets Thor out of Shield's holding cells and Thor has finally come around to be a good guy. He and Portman go out and sit next to a fire (Portman lives in a trailer by the way, would be easy to take care of her) and it looked like things were about to be set off. I mean when Thor, with those golden locks starts talking about other realms out in the moonlight there is no way any mortal could say no. Portman just falls asleep though.

Loki sends that loud robot thing to earth to kill Thor. His four friends from the ice planet escapade show up to get Thor back and help him but get trashed by the robot. Sif does this hot, slow motion jump through the air and stab thing but even that doesn't stop the robot. Thor walks up to it and says something like “Take my life and spare the others”. Oh ya, he is ready for that hammer. The robot kills him, the hammer flies out of the ground to the dead Thor who is now alive and destroys it. Yay.

SPOILER TIME, IT”S BEEN A WHILE

Thor and the others get ready to go back to Asgard. Before going he kisses Portman's hand who then kisses back his face. All gentleman. He is off. The rainbow bridge that he is walking on doesn't have much color. I wanted to see the Mario Kart rainbow bridge, but this one was very clear. The frost dude shows up to kill Odin but Loki kills the frosty first. It was Loki's plan to look good all along by saving Odin. I think. Loki does this thing where he freezes the bridge to the ice world which will destroy the frost giants which he thinks will impress Odin. Guy has major daddy issues. They fight and eventually the only thing Thor can do to stop the whole ice realm from being destroyed is breaking the bridge. That will block off them off from going to all planets so he wont be able to see Portman anymore. Just as it breaks and they are falling, Odin shows up and catches them. Loki lets go because Odin says that this wouldn't make him happy. Sad but no way he is dead.

Everything there is back to normal. Thor is bummed because he can't go back to Portman and that would crush any man, lets be real. Lady Sif is a mighty good rebound though, I wouldn't be sulking for too long. He stands at the end of the bridge next to the gatekeeper and asks if there is anyway to go back and he says that there's always a way. Movie ends. After the credits they have a quick scene of Eric with Nick Fury. Eric gets possessed by Loki or something who is about to steal some energy thing. Could be an avengers plot.

THERE IT IS

Favorite Scene : Thor breaking into the hammer base. For a super hero movie, the action scenes seem short but this one was actually exciting. Some good fighting and drama.

Memorable Lines : “This mortal form grows weak, I require sustenance!” I want to start saying this all the time.

Rating : 6 Pez from a Thor head dispenser. Movie is pretty average. Was a little rough in the beginning but picked up there at the end. I wish they had gotten a real director instead of the guy who played Lockhart in H.P. 2. I was also bummed with some of the effects. In a lot of places, the green screens just looked cheap. I would've rather they put the money into building some sets. They didn't even have to look all that nice and it still would've been an improvement. Loki could've been a little more evil too. I'm guessing we'll get that in The Avengers.

Alternate Ending : Am I alone in wishing that Thor didn't get his powers back and went to go live on a farm or something? Him and Portman and maybe Sif just wrangling cattle. I think they would be happy.

What I would do if I was the main character : Natalie Portman

What Happens in the Sequel : Loki causes a ruckus and gets back to earth somehow. Thor finds out a way to get to earth too and they battle. A battle for the throne in Thor II : Game of Thrones. The actual sequel is on the way too.