We drank, we fought, we made our ancestors proud! – A THOR Review

Without a doubt, this is going to be a Super Summer. The endless list of Blockbuster Comic Book flicks set to release over the next few months is more than enough to get our nerd blood pumping and we were thrilled to get off to a mighty good start last night at the Scotiabank Theatre.

If you haven’t noticed, our movie outings carefully avoid any and all 3D experiences. Without going into too big of a rant, a certain stubborn redhead refuses to accept this new trend of unnecessary 3D action. But alas, a careless planning mistake that neither of these City Girls were responsible for armed us with a pair of 3D glasses and a couple of colourful curse words and landed us at the 3D screening of THOR.

The Mighty (attractive) Thor (Chris Hemsworth), a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war with a race of icy Frost Giants (really), is cast down to Earth by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and forced to live among humans as punishment. Stripped of his godly powers and his bulging ego, Thor gets the mortal treatment by throwing back beers with Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), cooking eggs with astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and somehow learns what it takes to be a true hero.

The film itself didn’t seem very long and if you want to deeply critique the plot, we could list for you the underdeveloped characters and the one dimensional connections they create with each other. But that’s not what this kind of movie is about, the Marvel Universe exists outside of structured plotlines and relies more on the epic adventure these heroes take us on. An adventure that is heavy with brotherly betrayal, government cover-ups, and electrifying combat.

Even though the 3D effects were slightly campy during the opening Asgard scenes and the quick action cuts ended up being a little blurry, the overall digital aesthetic of the various city shots and the Bifröst Bridge were breathtaking.

Hemsworth proves he has a solid grip on the bold and charming portrayal of the Norse God, from hammering out obnoxious one liners to walking around without a shirt on. Combined with the comedic relief of Darcy (Kat Dennings), the movie actually presents a lot of amusing scenes and laugh out loud moments threaded in among the action and drama.

And for all the fangirls out there, Veronica’s deep mid-movie sigh passionately confirms that Thor knows how to wear a pair of jeans and does he ever wear them well!

With appearances of S.H.I.E.L.D, seen previously in Iron man, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and the traditional nerdtastic sneak peak after the credits, Thor further foreshadows the anticipated Avengers flick slated for 2012. Next up: Captain America (July)!

Images from Google Images