The climactic scene in Thor takes place upon the cinematic equivalent of Mario Kart's "Rainbow Road." This is an unfortunate allusion for the filmmaker to make, given that the characters in Thor are drawn with even less depth than Mario and Luigi.
vs.
A microscopically drawn love story between Thor and Ugh!GardenState apparently provides the basis for Loki's terrible decisions in the last third of the movie. This from a character whose machinations are so invisible that no one should be able to sense them. That the Asgardian courtiers do sense them makes the movie about a million times more difficult to enjoy. He's smart, and he's thoughtful, but hey, that must mean he's evil.
Basically, Thor's the kind of guy Asgard would have a beer with. Despite no evidence whatsoever that he's anything but a warmongering dilettante, the Asgardians wet their pants at the very mention of him, forgetting that his decision-making capabilities rest ever so slightly above that of your average houseplant.
I'm not saying that Thor doesn't deserve character growth or redemption, but it's frankly ludicrous that anyone would place their faith in him before he earns his redemption.
The movie's total commitment and belief in Thor's frat-boy wonderfulness undermines everything else that actually works in the movie, like the underlying themes of brother vs. brother, which were explored with such great success in The Social Network.
I'm sure I'm not the only person who's drawn to geekdom because the winners are rarely the pretty, the popular, or the strong. Genre fiction tends to favor the clever, the ones who use their brains and their wits to get by in the world. In this post-colonial world, do we really need another hero whose only functional attribute is a toothy grin and the ability to beat the shit out of his lessers?
There's no choice involved in Thor being Thor. He's born with his kingdom, and wins it back from Loki with nothing more than a little violence. Even Tony Stark, blessed with his millions and his brains, makes the moral choice to use his power for good. Same with Bruce Wayne. Thor? He's just born with it. Why would he bother to be a just ruler at all? And more to the point, why does anyone believe in him as a ruler?
Things I DID Like:
- Kat Dennings
- Kat Dennings
- Kat Dennings
- Darcy
- Tom Hiddleston's performance as Loki
