Additional thoughts on Thor (the movie)

Yep, I saw the film (last night — suffer, Droogs!) and I posted my review of it already, and yes, I seriously dug the film. It really is quite good, and that is more than just a relief, it is wicked cool.

And, yeah, I really did have quite a bit of fun with my review, but there are still some observations that I want to make about it. First up (and to be totally honest), I was a tad leery about this film, I mean, it is about a guy prancing around in armor and a winged helmet swing a big hammer. Truthfully, it could have gone very bad, very quickly.  What kept the film from becoming a one-off, bad parody of what comicbook films could (should) be, was director Kenneth Branagh, who Ironically, enough acted in (and directed) Shakespearian films is now the driving force behind the only comicbook character who speaks in Shakespearean-style Pentameter.

More than that, though, it is clear that there is an obvious respect for the source material. Which is to say it is not treated with the same kind of disdain that Joel Schumacher had for Batman during his tenure over that film franchise. Then, of course there is the care that Marvel Studios has taken to interweave the storyline from the current slate of films as they each pay homage to the previous ones as well as help set up the story (and interest) for the next ones.

In this film there are references to Tony Stark, SHIELD, Bruce Banner, and a future Avenger (no, not Cap). There is also the dynamic between Thor and Loki (which is different, than the comic), and it plays out better here. There is homage to the material created by Stan, Jack, and Larry Leiber (as well as the requisite cameo by Stan). We get to see more of SHIELD Agent Coulson, and (interestingly enough), the “human” form of Loki is portrayed akin to the Ultimate Universe version of Loki, which just add to the overall coolness of the film.

Yeah, Marvel has it way out in front of DC on creating a cohesive mythos for the film adaptations of its characters (but Marvel always did have a better grasp on fitting all the pieces of the puzzle together, much like a finely woven tapestry. So, you really owe it to yourself to check out Thor this weekend (oh, and by-the-by, I may be a (mostly reformed) former Marvel Zombie, I never really was a big Thor fan (even though I did contribute to the indexing of Thor’s comics for The Official Index to the Marvel Universe (vol. 2).

Anyway, in case I haven’t said it yet (or said it enough), Thor really rocks, and you should totally check it out.