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‘Thor’ Movie Review

by Neil PondMay 13, 2011

Ancient god of thunder makes modern big-screen debut

Tom Hiddleston plays Thor's scheming brother, Loki.Chris Hemsworth and Anthony Hopkins star in 'Thor.'Chris Hemsworth plays Thor, the Norse god of thunder, in 'Thor.'Thor (Chris Hemsworth) confronts a special government agent (Clark Gregg) interested in his special powers and weaponry.Thor (Chris Hemsworth) shares a tender moment with his Earthly love interest (Natalie Portman) in 'Thor.'Rene Russo portrays Thor's mother, Frigga.
Tom Hiddleston plays Thor's scheming brother, Loki.
Chris Hemsworth and Anthony Hopkins star in 'Thor.'
Chris Hemsworth plays Thor, the Norse god of thunder, in 'Thor.'
Thor (Chris Hemsworth) confronts a special government agent (Clark Gregg) interested in his special powers and weaponry.
Thor (Chris Hemsworth) shares a tender moment with his Earthly love interest (Natalie Portman) in 'Thor.'
Rene Russo portrays Thor's mother, Frigga.

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman & Anthony Hopkins
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Rated PG-13
Release date May 6, 2011

Thor is no new kid on the block. Centuries ago, Scandinavians thought the Viking warrior deity and his heavy-metal hammer caused the heavens to rumble, hence his designation as God of Thunder. Even today, his name is recalled at least once a week—every Thursday, or “Thor’s Day.”

But Norse mythology and the Roman calendar aside, most modern-day folks came to know him from the comic book The Mighty Thor, which began firing up young imaginations in the early 1960s. On the pulpy page, Thor was a cosmic commuter who split his time between Earth and his ancestral home in Asgard, light years away, wielding his massive mallet to keep order across the universe.

Director Kenneth Branagh, the esteemed English actor best known for his masterful movie treatments of Shakespeare’s Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet, blends Arthurian grandeur, fanboy-pleasing whallop and special-effect razzle-dazzle for Thor’s movie debut, which explains the backstory of how the hunky hammerer got from Up There to Down Here.

Australian newcomer Chris Hemsworth (Capt. Kirk’s dad in 2009’s Star Trek) plays the blonde-tressed thunderer, am impetuous young man whose hot head and war-mongering arrogance gets him the royal boot from his father, Zeus-like King Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Thor is stripped of his Olympian powers, relieved of his hammer and banished him to Earth to live among the lowly mortals.

How convenient that he meets (and falls in love) with a pretty astrophysicist, Jane (Natalie Portman), who’s been looking to the stars for cosmic answers to ancient universal mysteries.

Meanwhile, trouble’s a-brewing upstairs, where Thor’s evil brother Loki has hatched a sinister power play for the throne, one that involves dispatching Thor and his newfound terrestrial girlfriend.

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