REBLOGGED REVIEWS OF THOR ONE & THE DARK WORLD

Going Backwards here are THOR 3 in theaters here's going back to the reviews of One and Two now found only here...

THOR 2: THE DARK WORLD: The first THOR was a hard sell… A demigod with long blond hair and an ancient hammer isn’t your typical brooding comic book hero… And so the earthlings, especially Natalie Portman’s Jane, a beautifully brainy love interest and her colleagues, including sarcastic hipster chick Darcy, who, using a snarky monotone, second-guesses the bizarre situation, helped make the audience believe this was all really happening…

Year: 2013

But after THE AVENGERS, we don’t need further confirmation. Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, is very real and his home-world Asgard is in danger because of a monolithic structure Jane discovers between worlds… Part of which enters her body… And when she quickly travels with Thor to Asgard, the stranger in a strange land concept doesn’t quite work like when Thor came to Earth…

Thor2Score: **

Although a decent actress, Portman's tone/voice sounds more like a valley girl in a local arcade. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, as the scientists gather to figure things out, Darcy’s forced comic relief is annoying, distracting, and downright unfunny… Thankfully there’s Thor’s “brother", that instigative menace from THE AVENGERS who, locked into a permanent glass structure, is freed to help destroy the big bad (and completely uninteresting) villain…

The dependable Loki, like Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor in SUPERMAN 2… after being replaced as the central villain… keeps the dry humor flowing – some lines hit, other miss, but that’s the best thing DARK WORLD has going for it: the camaraderie between two polar opposite brothers in a colorful world where dazzling special effects have an old-school matte painting aesthetic, while space ships zip around like in the STAR WARS (or current STAR TREK) universe: It’s when Thor joins the small band of earthlings to thwart the city-ravaging beast, while strategically jumping from various wormholes into either dimension, that things gets convoluted, ponderous, and with a second AVENGERS already planned, somewhat pointless too…

THOR Year: 2011

THOR: THE FIRST MOVIE: Seems strange Kenneth Branagh would direct a Marvel Comics adaptation? Well the main setting’s a lair within the fantastical world in Asgard that, resembling a giant stage, has intense actors shouting about honor and battle.

ThorScore: ***1/2

Thor, played with gusto by Chris Hemsworth, is an overly confident son of Odin (Anthony Hopkins) who, along with a small group of warriors… including passive brother Loki… goes to battle with evil “frost giants.” This displeases pop, who sends Thor and his hammer separately to earth. The hammer, like King Arthur’s sword, is planted into the ground with no one able to lift it. Nearby, Thor’s discovered by a group of scientists – one older man and two beautiful girls including love-interest Natalie Portman, aiding our godly-powerless but humanly-badass hero in recovering the blade...

The best moments have Thor adapting to the small town setting; in one scene, storming into a pet store, he demands a horse. Then as he fist-fights soldiers and battles a giant metallic robot, the action, with abundant but never intrusive CGI, delivers. Meanwhile, back at the sky ranch, after brother Loki’s realized as the main villain, a redeemed Thor returns to fight him. At this point we yearn for more fish-out-of-water adventures on Earth, but thankfully, the film ends soon after… seeming like a slightly prolonged short story adapted to the big screen, making for simplistic, fun fare – which is a good thing. After all, it’s a comic book origin… not Shakespeare.