Thor

Preparations for the Avengers film continue, and the Superhero movie is in a new age of prominence. Obviously, there have always been Superhero films in my lifetime, with Superman and Batman rather staples of every childhood for decades. But with X-Men, Thor and Green Lantern all having adaptations in the space of weeks, things are busy just now.

Thor was never a favourite of mine, and probably my least favourite of any Marvel character who gets his own regular title, save perhaps Namor. I had a video of Thor as a child, horribly animated and horribly acted – and these are my impressions from when I was six or seven, when just about any nonsense pleased me. But now he has been reimagined for a new generation, and given a big-screen movie, which has been met with critical acclaim and great word-of-mouth.

And it hasn’t moved too far from its comic counterpart, either, in all its excess. In a high-fantasy Asgard, we follow Thor as, impetuous and proud, he is exiled by his father for almost starting a war. He is of course exiled to Midgard, our world, and what is essentially a Viking warrior has to prove he is worthy to wield Mjolnir while finding his way in a strange new world. But Loki, Thor’s adoptive brother, may just have been pulling the strings behind the scenes, and may have more machinations in store yet.

Where Thor works for its update is in the humour. The writers know they’re working with a very silly concept, sillier even than most of the adaptations that come from comic books, and while the segments on Earth are comparatively slow, they also bring with them much-needed reliability, first having the human characters mystified by the fish-out-of-water, and then by having Thor depowered become vulnerable and identifiable. Loki’s manipulative ways ensure that there are some twists towards the end, and overall we get a satisfying blockbuster with good performances and memorable imagery.

But Loki’s character is the one that causes problems for this film. He’s clever, sly and callous, but his plans are just so badly-laid that I spent the whole thing expecting different twists – and then wondering why he didn’t think of the things I did. It makes sense that he sets up a situation where he could have Thor removed, then be seen to save his father so that he would be glorified, but it just doesn’t work. The way he deals with Thor and the Warriors Three (plus one) just closes too many possibilities for him without decent insurance. And when he sees his brother back, Mjolnir in hand, it clearly makes a lot more sense to backtrack and pretend you planned everything so that he’d be restored and bide your time.

Oh well. It’s a comic book blockbuster so there’s little point in overthinking it. I don’t think it quite deserves the plaudits it’s getting, but a Thor film certainly could have been much, much worse.