Ben Child 

Thor makes comic-book movies a Marvel once more

Ben Child: The superhero genre seemed to be running out of steam until reviews of Kenneth Branagh's 'weirdly charming' film landed
  
  

Heart of gold ... Chris Hemsworth's portrayal of Thor (left) is genuinely touching
Heart of gold ... Chris Hemsworth's portrayal of Thor (left) is genuinely touching Photograph: Public Domain

Earlier this year, around about the time The Green Hornet arrived in cinemas, the comic-book movie fan had good reason to be a little anxious for the future of the form. Though the film performed well at the box office, it received short shrift from the critics and seemed to embody a general sense of ennui with all the caped crusaders and masked heroes who have made their way into multiplexes over the last few years.

A look at the forthcoming schedule did not exactly calm the nerves. In 2011 Marvel studio was due to continue building towards The Avengers, its attempt to create the first ever genuine ensemble superhero film, with standalone outings for Captain America and Thor. The former seemed unlikely to have much impact outside the States, and the latter ... well, who apart from the little girl wearing the viking helmet in Adventures in Babysitting ever got excited about Thor? Early footage from the Comic-Con 2010, replete with uber-gaudy CGI Asgard and an apparently wooden Chris Hemsworth as the god of thunder, seemed to confirm suspicions that Kenneth Branagh's film might be something of a dud.

Then, about a week or so back, the reviews started coming in. Thor currently holds a rating of 90% "fresh" on the reviews aggregator site rottentomatoes.com. It's early days yet, but that puts it up above pretty much every comic-book film of the last few years bar Iron Man and The Dark Knight – exalted company indeed. My colleague Xan Brooks pretty much nailed it earlier this week with a three-star review that praised the film for its "weirdly charming" take on the character, while pointing out more than the odd fault. "Branagh has knocked his film together with a terrific, freewheeling gusto," he wrote. "It has its tongue in its cheek and the fun is infectious. For all of its flaws, Thor's never a bore."

What are those flaws, then? Well, the CGI is still spectacularly tacky: Asgard looks like a gleaming, gold, king-sized bathroom in the home of a lottery winner. It doesn't even seem close to real, but Branagh has cleverly spotted the Avatar rule of CGI film-making: if you're going to depict a digital environment, make sure you keep the audience in that environment for a large proportion of the film. And make sure it's not supposed to be Earth. Nobody cares all that much if somewhere doesn't look real (after all, Pixar movies don't look real) provided they're not reminded how fake it all looks by regular juxtaposition with non-CGI live action. Thor spends a long time in Asgard – too long, many critics have suggested – and Branagh just about gets away with the movie's frenzy of pixels because of it.

The other surprise about Thor is Hemsworth. The trailer really didn't show quite what a tidy job the Australian actor does of nailing this big, brash, boorish baby of a brute, and his transition over the course of the film into a genuine hero. Branagh's Thor is a sort of loutish, rugby-playing, beer-swilling idiot type, a posh prat who's always had his own way and is well overdue a bit of a fall. His path to enlightenment is genuinely touching. Yes ... touching. In a bloody Thor movie.

Marvel has now put out four pictures since it won back the rights to its own characters and set up a film-making arm: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man II and Thor. Of those, at least three are decent – not a bad record by anyone's standard. We now await Captain America with a rather greater degree of anticipation.

As an aside, Marvel's Kevin Feige confirmed this week that Captain America and Thor sequels are being planned for after The Avengers. I now find myself strangely looking forward to the latter. Marvel's successes may not yet mean we're entering a comic-book movie "golden age" to mirror the print form's 1930s and 40s heyday. Yet thanks to Thor, the studio's name on the credits is starting to look like something of a stamp of quality. Maybe that kid with the viking helmet knew something after all.

 

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