The Mighty Thor!

It's even more enjoyable the second time you see it! But when you go see a super hero movie with two best friends each time it's bound to be a party.

Marvel's newest heavy hitter, Thor is a modern retelling of the Marvel supher hero of the same name. Thor is cocky and violent and after risking open war with a rival kingdom his father, Odin, banishes him to Midgard a.k.a. planet Earth to teach him humility. Thor's jealous brother Loki uses this opportunity to usurp the throne with the fate of our world hanging in the balance.

Well I do think that is a rather descent plot summary, if I do say so myself. I better check myself before Odin has his way with me too haha. I've been looking forward to this and it delivered. I am loving this new age of Marvel films gracing the screens, after Spider-Man, Hulks, X-Men, Fantastic Four and Punisher and the rest, the last several years have introduced us to Iron Man, now Thor and next month Captain America! It's a good feeling seeing these beloved comic heroes come to life.

I didn't know much about Iron Man or Thor growing up cuz I grew up on DC heroes and just knew the gist of guys like Spidey, the Mutants and F4, respectively. I knew Thor was a Norse god reimagined as a modern day hero but I didn't know if he had a secret identity or a weakness or even where Norse gods came from. If you wanna know all of that, read the comics and or check out wikipedia.

Pretty much though, all of the classic elements, well not all, but some have been changed to make this movie and origin a neat sort of retro, neo space-opera. If that makes sense.

Probabaly not.

Anyway the geography of the Norse legends have been cast against the stars as planets: Midgard is earth as usual but instead of Asgard is a planet as well as Jotunheim and various other "realms". Which is funny becasue the word "realm" is still used. Magic and science are one and the same and its that reality that strangely enough ties Earth in with Thor's world. Thor and his people are aware of us just simply haven't visited in years. As the Odin states at the beginning of the movie, "Earth people accepted a simple truth: that they were not alone." Pretty much there's this cool sense of neighborliness in the movie, as dorky as that may sound. Its simply Earth who after so long forgot about our cosmic friends and redced them to legends.

What I enjoyed so much about the movie is the sense of identity and ability in the characters. Jane and Thor, Loki, Odin and Heimdell all understand what they are here to do; or at least think they do. I like how Loki refers to Heimdell's powers as actually gifts. I just took away this real sense of selfawareness or craving for identity. The abilities from the Asgardians seem to be bestowed by virtue of personality and "station". They do what they do becasue its their purpose, kinda like in The Matrix trilogy.

Thor wants to be more glorious than his dad Odin but he skips the wisdom and diplomacy and just wants to fight and be the best without proving himself in both mind and power. Honestly Thor seems to be very people oriented and charming but he doesn't rely on that to propel him forward just his brawn. I think his gift is his abiltiy to rally people around him and give them a sense of security. I don't know, since I've been on this self discovery trip I just see things like this more often lol.

The movie is different than most scifi super hero movies becasue there's "magic" and stuff in this new one, but there's a fresh feel to it, kinda like what I got from Iron Man just at the other end of the spectrum, magic over science... or excuse me, a fusion of the two.

For a walloping good time check out Thor, you'll really like it and STAY AFTER THE CREDITS ROLL. Also look for his half sequel in The Avengers next summer, which is filming now. Aaaand check out the Pop Culture Podcast all about Thor in the comics, click on the link below

http://shegawmekonen.podomatic.com/entry/2011-04-27T09_16_05-07_00

And with that, my Summer Movie adventure kicks off with a BANG!

EL FIN