Thor

Hey, remember what I said about The Rocketeer? It never took itself too seriously, it was mostly lighthearted fun, it was a great retelling of a story type that's been done to death? Good, then I don't really need to say much more about

But I will anyway.


So, it never took itself too seriously. It's a film directed by Kenneth Branagh, so right off the bat it's a full world of ham. And, unlike, say, Pacific Rim (Idris Elba is ten times better here than there), here the entire cast is on the same page as far as what kind of film this is. It's a film with a barbarian-fish-out-of-water plot. So all the barbarians chew the scenery while all the mortals stand around being human and acting their way through an obscene number of dutch angles. And it works very, very well.

It was a great retelling of a story type that's been done to death. I actually don't mean the fish-out-of-water plot, although that element is most certainly present.  Rather, it's a story of a cocky hero* who gets brought down to normal and has to live as a mortal for a while (cf. Jaime Lannister in A Storm of Swords, Buffy in "Helpless," Luke Skywalker in the Thrawn Trilogy - there's a reason those books are the only Star Wars books you should ever read - but also, weirdly, I couldn't help but be reminded of Samus in Metroid Prime - hero starts off with all the awesome skills, loses them, has to regain them) or sees his haughtiness broken (cf. James Bond in Casino Royale, Achilles and Ulysses, Altair in Assassin's Creed, and Londo from Babylon 5 - oh, guess who co-wrote this film?) before finding redemption.

*Chris Hemsworth played George Kirk (Jim's dad) in Star Trek the Star Trek. So "cocky hero" is basically in his genes.

The biggest flaw in the film is that I'm not entirely sure what Loki's motivation was. He tricks Thor into getting into a fight with the White Walkers Ice Giants (oh, look, sibling rivalry with Shakespearean overtones - totally not The Lion King) but then it turns out that it's not because he wants Thor's crown; he just wants the chance to prove himself to Daddy. At least in The Avengers his motivation made sense: he's f*cking crazy and loving it.

Some people seem to think that it's a flaw that Thor spends the end of the movie fighting to save the Ice Giants. The reason Thor got exiled in the first place was because he recklessly endangered the fragile peace between the Ice Giants and Asgard.  In order for his redemption arc to be complete, he had to save the Ice Giants from another renegade Asgardian.  

While it's not perfect, Thor might just be the best f*cking superhero movie ever made. Final grade: A.